Who's red and blue and read all over? Eli

Sekou Smith, Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer
07/25/01 11:57 PM Central

Oxford, MS (AP) -- OXFORD — If you think you know what pressure is, try living in Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning's shoes for about five minutes this summer.

Although Eli Manning has yet to start a game for the Rebels, he's already attracting attention.

Folks from coast to coast, not to mention Ole Miss fans, are vying for every spare minute of his time these days.

He has graced the cover, along with fellow famous son, Texas quarterback Chris Simms, of at least one preseason magazine.

One publication went so far as to pick Manning preseason All-Southeastern Conference.

All this, and the son of Archie and brother of Peyton has yet to start his first college game.

But to those whose task it is to chronicle college football, that's the least important aspect of a story they say transcends the game itself.

"If what happens here the next couple of years is what I think will happen, we'll have something unprecedented," said Los Angeles Times college football writer Chris Dufresne, one-third of a trio of national pundits — which included Tony Barnhart of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and ESPN and Mark Blaudschun of The Boston Globe — who invaded town last week in an effort to unearth Eli's story.

"Has there ever been a son and a brother of two college football icons step into the spotlight?" Dufresne continued. "I think it's intriguing, the lineage factor. These guys, Peyton and Eli, are probably going to end up playing against each other on Sundays. That sets off all sorts of bells and whistles for story lines.

"The Manning name is a national name. It's the reason why he'll get attention, national attention, that other people of his ability will not. And when you hear whispers that he could be the best one, it makes you stand back and say, 'Whoa.' "

Eli's story has become one of the hottest to track during this sweltering summer.

Chicago Tribune national college football writer Andy Bagnato is due in town today. USA Today just finished one story on the Mannings and plans another on Eli.

The Ole Miss sports information office has been swamped with interview requests, receiving twice as many requests for time with Manning as it did last season when it promoted Deuce McAllister for the Heisman Trophy.

"The requests have been national in scope, and they've come in daily," said Ole Miss sports information director Langston Rogers. "From the smallest publications to the largest we've tried to accommodate all of them."

A Wednesday teleconference with Manning during the season is scheduled to help handle all the interview requests.

"He'll be available on Mondays like all of our players, but he doesn't have time to answer every call individually," said Rogers, who has used the summer exposure to the national media to promote other Rebels. "Classwork comes first, and then he has to practice."

Eli also has games in which to perform. Barnhart and crew already have observed a sample.

While in Miami to cover the Orange Bowl in January, Barnhart said, all the writers were glued to the TV while Manning directed a fourth-quarter Rebel comeback in the Music City Bowl.

And when Barnhart and Blaudschun discussed where they'd make stops during the summer, Oxford came up quickly.

"A bunch of us try and make stops together, and when Mark mentioned Eli Manning it was an easy choice," Barnhart said. "This is a story you really want to be out in front of. You don't want to wait until he throws for 1,000 yards after the first two games and then come down here and try and write a story. You want to make your readers aware of a situation like this, with all the history and tradition involved, before it happens."

If mid-July, long before two-a-days and even longer before an actual game is played doesn't count for before, nothing does.

Eli brought Blaudschun, who has covered the game long enough to have remembered seeing Archie play at about Eli's age, to Mississippi for the first time.

There have been plenty of national story lines — most recently Steve McNair at Alcorn State — concerning Mississippi college football in recent years.

But none had the front end steam of Eli's story.

"Had Eli been at another school, say Virginia or somewhere, it would be something I'd look into after maybe his third year or something," Blaudschun said with a thick Beantown accent. "But Eli back here is the hook. He walks into the interview room and there's a room right next to it named for his father.

"That's unbelievable, the linkage there. Yet, he handles it so nonchalantly. The way he deals with all this is really the story."

Barnhart, an authority on the history of Southern football, said the fact that Eli is playing at Ole Miss is a story in itself.

"It's a very courageous move on Eli's part to come to Ole Miss," Barnhart said. "The easy thing to do would've been to go to school XYZ and not have to deal with the inevitable comparisons, a place where this wouldn't be an issue. But he didn't."

"And that's why this entire story transcends football. Football is just the vehicle. To me, there are a handful of names in football that transcend the sports. Bryant is one of them; Manning is one, too. No matter where you grew up, you knew about Archie Manning."

Growing up in Southern California, Dufresne said, he knew Archie more as a New Orleans Saint than he did as an Ole Miss Rebel. Blaudschun said New Englanders all knew Archie from his NFL days playing against the New England Patriots. But all agreed that the Peyton factor is what helps this story bridge the generational gap.

"We all covered Peyton, got to know him pretty well and know what he's about," Barnhart said. "The thing you're dying to know is, is he like Peyton or not like Peyton? And the fact that he's a drastically different personality than Peyton is an interesting contrast. Eli's more of a free spirit, and I think that helps him in the long run with dealing with all of this."

"This" would be the outrageous expectations fans and the media have already placed on Eli's broad shoulders.

The only people who don't know that Eli's expected to take the Rebels to the "next level" is the newest cast on Survivor.

But much like everything else, Blaudschun said Eli handled talk of the pressure and expectations without flinching.

"We talked to him about how hard of a fight it'll be to maintain the team aspect of everything," Blaudschun said. "It's kind of like what happened to Michael Vick last year at Virginia Tech; guys see him getting all the attention while they're busting their tails, too. It becomes a tough situation for the coaching staff, the support staff, the other players and Eli to keep it all in the proper perspective."

Perspective is where Eli Manning's pedigree should help, Barnhart said.

"He has Archie and Peyton around to tell him how to focus on the team concept when he's the obvious focal point," Barnhart said. "The fact that Eli already knows it's important is half the battle. There are other guys in this situation who either don't know or don't care. That he has that knowledge will help him immediately, and Ole Miss a lot."

Still, there's the matter of the season. You know, it starts Sept. 1 against Murray State.

Barnhart said nothing will be clear until after the first two games. "He should have success against Murray State, and then he'll have a tough road game at Auburn," he said. "From there, you'll just have to stay tuned."

"It's a deal where if he comes out hot, people will be screaming about how he's the greatest thing, but if he falls on his face, they'll be saying he's a bust," Blaudschun said. "The judgments will come every week, and they won't be middle of the road. People will have strong opinions whichever way things work out. Each week will be a judgment on him. It's not fair, but that's the way it is. I know I'll check his stats every Sunday during the season to see what he did."

"It's a lot like Chris Simms at Texas," Dufresne said. "People in far off places will know the name, and they'll check to see if he has the kind of game to go along with it."