In his most recent appearance on Action Network's BBOC YouTube channel, Johnny Manziel digested much of the action from Week 1 of the college football season on his "Intangibles" segment.
Detailing his MVP of Week 1, what his Texas A&M Aggies and Conner Weigman need to do to bounce back, and speaking on Mike Evans, Manziel offered insight that only a college football legend could.
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Q: Who's your MVP of Week 1?
JM: I think there were a lot of guys who played really, really great in the first opening week of the season, but the guy who stuck out to me the most was T-Mac, Tetairoa McMillan from the University of Arizona.
I mean, this guy goes off for 10 catches and 304 yards. I got a chance whenever I was playing to watch a guy go off for 280 and 260. So, to see the guy going off for 300 yards, touchdowns of 69, 78, and 40, and then adding a 17-yarder in there just to kinda make a little bit of a splash.
It's a new school record. Anytime you do anything that takes 91 seasons of your football's history, and you come and break something like that, I think it's truly a special week.
It's the first 300-yard performance that we've had in college football since 2022. It doesn't happen a lot whatsoever, and it's really only 1 of 6 receivers who could do this in the last decade. So anytime you're doing something for the first time in school history, something that hasn't been touched throughout the FBS in an entire decade of play.
Anytime you're able to go and do something like that, really come out and make a statement, I think this guy is gonna be something to watch throughout the rest of the year and definitely one to keep an eye on.
Q: Conner Weigman, he looked awful. The passing offense looked broken. There's still time here. Who better to ask about where Weigman could be psychologically than you? You and your first game against Florida, had a rough performance. You got the "for sale" signs out. What was your reaction after that game, and how you were able to bounce back? Did you start to doubt yourself? How did you get focused going forward?
JM: I think the good thing for A&M right now is going into an easier game this week. Right? They're gonna go into a week of practice, try to clean up what they had wrong in week 1 of this season. And I think that's kinda where, for me and my process, you go from playing a hard nose, really good defense in Florida like I did my first year.
I think Weigman — kinda in the same situation — played a really good Notre Dame team that had a lot of scheme, a lot of guys flying around on defense, and just kinda got him rattled from the very beginning. I think as you go through your season, you go back to practice, this week.
It is a little bit dejecting, having to go watch that film and seeing 100 pass yards, and having a tough day at the office for them. But with the opponent they have going into Week 2, it's a confidence builder. To be able to get into your sets, get into your plays, and see these things against an opponent, compared to seeing it in practice against your own guys.
Q: What was the roughest moment that you can remember after that Week 1 game before Week 2?
JM: Just looking back and seeing missed opportunities. I think Weigman's gonna go back and see a couple of throws. He had a crossing route that he overthrew a little bit that ended up getting picked, and another turnover in their own side of the field.
When you go back and look at those on film, those are the things that make you the most sick. I went back and looked at that Florida game and was like, man, we were really, really […] if you just make a couple different throws, a couple different decisions and plays.
I think that's what sticks with you for the first couple days of the week, but it's something you have to have a very quick release of these things and a quick mindset adjust because this season is just getting started for A&M.
They're gonna need him to play well if they're gonna have any chance of moving forward in the season.
Q: The "for sale" signs — that's a true story from your documentary?
JM: Definitely. I remember getting back home and seeing a lot of them in the front yard. It's just one of those things about SEC football. They take it really, really seriously; A&M is a football school. One hundred seven thousand people were there to watch that game against Notre Dame this week.
I think everybody left the same way that I did with the sour taste in your mouth and really questioning what the season looks like for them now after game 1. But it's easy to get down after one game. I think they'll clean it up and make some adjustments.
Q: Can you see the offense turning it around, or do you need to see more first before you can say that?
JM: I need to see more first. I think we had a 170-something, 180-yard offense throughout the game.
That's just a really, really slow day.
If you look at A&M as a team, they have a defense that's there in caliber and an offense right now that's struggling to find a little bit of an identity. A new offensive coordinator, you know, getting your guys together. Obviously, they had a very tough opponent coming out of the gate in Week 1, but they're gonna need to find a way to gel and mesh, and it starts at the quarterback position.
Q: Any thoughts on the Heisman race as a former Heisman Trophy winner, and who would be your favorite as of right now?
JM: I really like the way Cam Ward played this Week. I know we've spoken about him a lot already so far. He's got off to a good start.
Another guy who I would really keep an eye on throughout the early part of the season. He threw for 445 yards. It's Jaxson Dart from Ole Miss. I think anybody who's playing in a Lane Kiffin system has a great opportunity to go out and sling the ball a lot every single week and put up big numbers. As we know, with Lane Kiffin, the guy is a bit of a wizard when it comes to the pass game.
We've seen him from Alabama in the past, what he's been doing as a head coach on his own. But anytime you have a quarterback that's in his system, you're gonna be able to put up numbers.
It's a great Week 1 start for Jaxson Dart. To be able to boost his odds a little bit and put himself in a good position. It wouldn't surprise me if he kept this up during the season.
Q: Any thoughts on the college football playoff race?
JM: Miami is one of the teams right now that looked really, really good coming out. You play an interstate rival in Florida. You come out and you do that to them. I think it all starts with the quarterback play at Cam Ward. Now that guy is playing like he's played a lot of football.
He's playing like a guy who's seeing things very slowly, getting the ball out of his hand very, very quickly and being super efficient. You see on some of these runs where he's getting what he needs to get and then almost like he's walking out of bounds a little bit. This guy has a lot of experience. Obviously, I think [with] a completely revamped team around them, that's put them in a great position. They're my favorite to come in here and win the ACC as well.
Q: Drew Allar and Miller Moss — did you get a chance to watch either of those quarterbacks?
JM: I think Miller Moss has been waiting and kinda biding his time to get a chance to be '"the guy."
Then you get a chance to come out in pretty much a prime-time game in the first week of the season and go make a substantial amount of plays (when it came down to crunch time) that his team needed him to make.
I don't think you can walk out of that stadium and have any more confidence leaving than Miller Moss did the other night.
Q: Colorado has a couple of guys in the Heisman mix, Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders. Any thoughts on either?
JM: I think the one thing they do have is the ability to be seen every single week. If I'm Shedeur Sanders, I'm getting the ball to Travis Hunter every single week.
In the Heisman race, it's kinda knocking them off a little bit at each other. But for Colorado to be good this year, it's gonna have to run through those two guys, and they're gonna need to do something extremely special.
Anytime you're throwing five-yard hitch routes, and Travis Hunter is able to take that to the house, as a quarterback sitting there, you have to feel really good about having a guy like that.
Them not being able to run the ball is gonna put more pressure on Shedeur. But if he can come out and continue to make plays week in and week out, who says this guy can't throw for a lot of yards in this offense? I think that Shedeur's best chance is to feed Travis Hunter, and they're gonna need him and rely on him a lot.
It's a lot of pressure, but if you live up to it, I think he can give himself a realistic chance to see if their defense can hold up.
Obviously, you're gonna need to be able to stay in some of these games, and they were in a dogfight in Week 1.
Q: And you definitely know what it's like to have a reliable security blanket in Mike Evans, playing with him?
JM: Absolutely. And I think Travis is as special of a player as we've seen. Not only playing both sides of the ball but just from a receiver position. This guy is making catches, and his speed and quickness in getting in and out of these breaks is something that really jumps off the tape and jumps off the page every single week you watch him play.
Q: How good was Mike Evans in college?
JM: Mike Evans was a guy who, in his first year, was still learning a lot about football and what it was. He was very much a basketball player. And as he progressed through every spring, through every fall, this guy turned into an absolute monster. And, legitimately, you could throw a screen out there that's a 0-yard pass that he would just stiff-arm somebody into the dirt. He has the speed to be able to get away from that.
Evans was really one of those generational college football guys and somebody I was very lucky to be able to share the field with.
Q: So when you first came to camp, he was completely raw and inexperienced?
JM: Me and him coming in, we got a chance to really mold a lot of our game going through the scout team. He had only played a couple years of football coming into Texas A&M, and we kinda recruited him away from going to play basketball somewhere.
As he got in, I think his size and his build and him as a physical talent was very much there, but still there's so much more to that. To route running and playing the receiver position.
Throughout our redshirt year, we got to see a small glimpse of what me and him would go on to do. When we got a chance to play on Saturdays, very much as a raw product and one that excelled and got exponentially better over those first two years.
Mike Evans and the Bucs are currently pegged as longshots for the Super Bowl in many of the best NFL betting apps. But who knows! Anything can happen this football season.
