University of Tennessee Athletics
The Beginnings Of A Legacy
March 07, 2016 | Football
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Peyton Manning was formally introduced to the football world when he trotted onto the field at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena against UCLA on Sept. 3, 1994.
Success may not have started for Manning from day one at Tennessee, but the potential for greatness was easy to see right away. Over the next 22 years, fans from Knoxville to Indianapolis to Denver and around the world enjoyed his talents on the field and fans in all of those communities and beyond benefited from his generosity away from it.
Legendary college football broadcaster Keith Jackson welcomed Manning to the field that first night in Pasadena by telling fans to "Get used to it." From that moment until another legendary announcer, Jim Nantz of CBS, called his final play of Super Bowl 50, fans were certainly used to it. So were the record books.
Recruiting coverage in 1994 was not of the same level that it is today, but Peyton Manning was certainly a known commodity in the football world. The battle for his services went deep into January, a commitment sealed on a recruiting visit that was actually prolonged by an ice storm.
He signed on the dotted line on Feb. 2, 1994 as a part of a class rated No. 1 in the country by many experts, partly because of Manning and fellow quarterback Brandon Stewart. Neither got the leg up on the offense that many players get today with an early enrollment, in those days players could not even enroll on scholarship for summer school. So, as his father Archie Manning explained to Lynn Swann during the ABC broadcast of the UCLA game, Peyton Manning had been on campus just weeks when he took the field for the first time.
Though Manning famously said in the huddle before his first drive as a Vol that he would lead them to a touchdown, his appearance in the second quarter of a game that UT trailed 12-0 would be short and unfruitful. In fact, he would not even throw a pass. A handoff to James Stewart on his first play would go for nine yards, but Mose Phillips and Stewart would be stopped at the line on the next two handoffs, sending Manning to the sideline with a three-and-out.
Manning would not see the field again that evening, with future baseball all-star Todd Helton nearly leading the Vols to a comeback win in place of injured starter Jerry Colquitt. Stewart also saw limited action. The scoreboard read 24-22 in favor of the Bruins that day, one of three losses in four games to start the 1994 season.
"I'm glad the coaches had confidence in me," Manning said after the game. "I know I will get a chance. They told us both we'd play after Jerry got hurt, I'm happy they got me in."
Next, he said something simple, but showed the class that would come to define who Manning is as a man.
"I can't imagine anything worse for Jerry," Manning said of the fifth-year senior that suffered a knee injury just a few plays into his first season as the starting quarterback. "My heart goes out to him."
Helton took every snap a week later in a 41-23 win over Georgia in Athens. Manning would next see the field in the third quarter against Florida, completing the first pass of his career on his first attempt, a 5-yard gain to James Stewart. A week later, Helton tweaked his knee at Mississippi State, reminding him and head coach Phillip Fulmer that his likely future in pro baseball meant it was time for the QB of the future to take over.
His first start against Washington State was not pretty, the Vols grinded out a 10-9 win by relying primarily on the ground game, but the die was cast.
Manning's first taste of a rivalry that would help define his career at Tennessee came two weeks later after his initial start as the No. 10 Alabama Crimson Tide came to Neyland Stadium. Manning led his offense to a go-head field goal, 13-10, with 7:45 to play. After the Tide answered with a touchdown drive to take the lead, 17-13, Manning and the offense came back on the field with 2:59 remaining.
Manning hit Joey Kent time after time on the ensuing drive, with back-to-back 17-yard completions getting UT to midfield and an 18-yard toss that put the Vols in Alabama territory. A 16-yard run by Aaron Hayden and another pass to Kent had Tennessee inside the 15. But Manning would misfire on consecutive passes from the 12-yard line and UA ran out the clock for a 17-13 win.
"I got my first taste of a great rivalry tonight," Manning said. "We played our hearts out."
Fulmer saw flashes of greatness that night.
"It was a very tough situation for a young quarterback and I thought he handled it well, especially for his years," Fulmer said after the game. "We will continue to work and fight."
Manning never lost to Alabama again. A week after it was announced in 1995 that the Alabama home games in the rivalry would leave the traditional home at Legion Field in Birmingham for the expanded Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Manning delivered a signature performance in a 41-14 victory that snapped a long losing streak to the Tide. He led the Vols to a tight 20-13 win in Knoxville as a junior and returned to Legion Field as a senior for the final Tennessee-Alabama game to be played there for another dominant victory, 38-21.
The Alabama loss was also the final one for the Vols in 1994. Manning threw for 189 yards and three touchdowns a week later in a 31-22 win over South Carolina. A win over Memphis came next, followed by shutouts against Kentucky (52-0) and Vanderbilt (65-0), which earned the Vols a bid to the Gator Bowl.
Ironically, the Gator Bowl had to move from its traditional home in Jacksonville to accommodate stadium construction for the city's new NFL franchise. Manning capped his freshman season by putting the Vols in the checkerboard end zone pained in enemy territory, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville. Tennessee defeated Virginia Tech, 45-23 in the home stadium of the Florida Gators.
Over the next three seasons, Manning would shatter every passing record at Tennessee, many of which he still holds. He forever endeared himself to Vol fans with his performance on the field and his class away from it. He was a two-time graduate from Tennessee, the second degree coming after he said words that will never be forgotten in Big Orange Country on March 5, 1997.
"I've made up my mind and I don't expect to ever look back," he said. "I'm going to stay at the University of Tennessee."
In Denver 19 years and two days later, Peyton Manning stepped to another microphone and announced his career as a professional football player was over. But as he referenced in that retirement speech, the bond forged with Tennessee fans is one that will never fade, even with Manning no longer barking out signals on the sideline. As Jackson suggested that night in 1994, Tennessee got used to the name Peyton Manning. And we are all better for that.
