Marshall football coach Charles Huff made headlines in the lead-up to his team's game against Ohio State last weekend by offering Buckeyes players "all-you-can-eat biscuits" if they were to transfer from Columbus to play for his Thundering Herd in Huntington, West Virginia.
While the age of NIL deals for college athletes has certainly changed the recruiting approaches for coaches across the country, former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Johnny Manziel remembers a unique pitch he received when he was mulling what to do following the 2013 season.
"I remember my favorite food spot in college, Jose's Mexican Food in Bryan, Texas, offered me free chicken quesadillas for life if I came back and played another year for the Aggies," said Manziel during his weekly appearance on "Johnny's Intangibles" on Action Network's BBOC YouTube channel.
"I still have the letter to this day, and I remember going back home and telling my sister and my mom about it. It was definitely something that was lingering in my head as I was deciding to put those papers in for the NFL Draft."
Manziel spent two seasons at Texas A&M before being drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns. As a redshirt freshman in 2012, he threw 26 touchdown passes and ran for 21 more to win the Heisman Trophy. In his redshirt sophomore season, he threw 37 touchdown passes and finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting before leaving school early to pursue the NFL.
Earlier this year, Manziel revealed on a podcast that his dad attempted to negotiate a $3 million deal with then-Aggies head coach Kevin Sumlin to get his son to stay in College Station instead of leaving early for the NFL. While a deal couldn't get done there (nor was it legal), his love for his favorite dish apparently played a role.
"It was their chicken quesadillas, and their salsa was also the best in town," Manziel told host Collin Wilson. "I had a great relationship with them there, and I still try to go every time I go back for a game at Kyle Field."
Johnny Manziel appears weekly on Action Network's BBOC YouTube channel, with Johnny's Intangibles releasing every Monday and Johnny's Scramble Drill releasing every Friday. He also appears on BBOC Live, which airs every Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. ET on the BBOC YouTube channel and the Action App.
