His teammates and coaches believe Manuel will be a star — but they’d rather talk about what a good guy he is. As the Seminoles wrapped up spring practice last Saturday, it was hard to find anyone in Tallahassee not gushing about Manuel. “When people think about a Florida State football player, if they think of EJ Manuel, I’ll be the happiest guy in the world,” coach Jimbo Fisher said. “I love everything about him.” Former FSU quarterback Charlie Ward, who has become Manuel’s mentor, won a Heisman trophy and a national championship in 1993 — then spent 12 years in the NBA. Despite those credentials, Ward says he is “really blessed and grateful that EJ has allowed me to be in his life.” Wide receiver Bert Reed described his quarterback as a walking, talking, touchdown-tossing billboard for all that’s right about college sports. “I can really, honestly say that with all my heart,” Reed said. “He really is everything you would want — even in a son.” So what’s all the fuss about? Beyond Manuel’s talents, his patience in waiting for playing time won many over. Others admire the way Manuel, who earned ACC All-Academic honors in 2009 and 2010, balances college life with the demands of big-time football. “Here’s what I love about EJ,” Zeigler said. “If something happened and he had a career-ending injury, there would be loss and sadness, but he’d get through it, probably go to grad school, and he would have a great life. He’s building his life in a bunch of different arenas. He just gets it.” The professor believes Manuel would make a good sports broadcaster or lawyer — or professor. Because what draws people to Manuel is what teammates call his “presence,” what Fisher refers to as “an aura.” “He’s dynamic,” said Zeigler, whose other students — even the sports-hating types — used to stand and cheer for Manuel in their class on rhetoric of didactic literature. “They’re genuinely happy to know him. When he walks into the room, everyone else in the room is buoyed, lifted up.”
Manuel surprises people who expect something less endearing from the big man on campus. He gives them a wide, white smile that is somehow both confident — he believes he’s destined for greatness, make no mistake — and bashful all at once. Manuel stifled a giggle last week as he considered the magnitude of what’s happening to him. “It’s incredible. When you say, ‘EJ Manuel is the starting quarterback at Florida State,’ it’s like a dream come true,” he said. “I’ve met Charlie Ward. That’s crazy. I’ve met Chris Weinke. I’ve met Peter Warrick, Deion Sanders, all those people that you grow up watching on TV. But I’m part of that fraternity now. I’m part of that Seminole blood now. It’s just crazy.” And they couldn’t be happier he’s in the family. Bayside High coach Darnell Moore first got a glimpse of Manuel’s potential when he was an eighth-grader, after Moore’s longtime assistant, Bill Dudley, asked him to take a look at his grandson. Manuel was well on his way to the 6-foot, 5-inch, 235-pound frame he has today and already slinging pretty passes to his squeaky-voiced friends. If Moore squinted, he could see a star. “We sort of had a vision for him, a big picture,” Moore said, denoting what has become the theme of Manuel’s life, “and he had to remain extremely focused, even as a ninth-grader, if he wanted to paint that picture.” Manuel did, applying some impressive early brushstrokes to the canvas of his career. He threw for 5,879 yards at Bayside, second-most in South Hampton Roads history at the time, and saw his profile soar the summer before his senior year. Manuel was rated the nation’s No. 2 dualthreat quarterback by Rivals.com. Coaches from nearly every major college flocked to Virginia Beach. Manuel chose Florida State because he liked the new offensive coordinator, Fisher, who last year replaced legendary Bobby Bowden as head coach. Fisher’s pro-style offense, in which Manuel would handle snaps from under center the way S EMINO LE-BO OST ERS .CO M
“When people think about a Florida State football player, if they think of EJ Manuel, I’ll be the happiest guy in the world … I love everything about him.” — Jimbo Fisher quarterbacks must in the NFL, fit the bigpicture plan. “He crossed off schools that ran the spread offense, where he’d be in the shotgun all the time,” Moore said. What Manuel didn’t realize then was that his progression at Florida State wouldn’t be a breeze. He thought he’d worked hard, and shined up his skills enough that he could step in and play right away. Then they redshirted him in 2008, and by the time the 2009 season started, Christian Ponder already had seized the starting job. Ponder had two years of eligibility remaining. “Since I started playing football, I’d always been the guy,” said Manuel, who suffered some mental whiplash when his fasttracked career screeched to a halt. While he always said the right things publicly, always showed up to practice with a smile, he hurt inside. There were nights when he cried into the phone while his father, Eric, Sr., calmly tried to remind him of that bigger picture.
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