Johnny Manziel shares how he helped get Kyler Murray to Texas A&M, why he left

Former NFL tight end and current media personality Shannon Sharpe’s podcast ‘Club Shay Shay’ has become a destination for some of the most prominent figures in sports and beyond to tell unique stories and share their perspectives. With legendary Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel representing the latest guest to join the show.

Sharpe and Manziel spoke about the highs and lows in the career of the only freshman to ever win the Heisman Trophy in the history of college football. But during the conversation, Manziel also spoke about current Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray. Who represents one of the biggest what-ifs in recent college football history after transferring out of Texas A&M following his freshman year.

“I had a huge hand in getting him to Texas A&M,” Manziel said about Murray. “2012 and 13 whenever I was at A&M I saw this kid, and I’d known his Dad obviously a legendary quarterback at Texas A&M in his own right. But Kyler, I saw this kid who was engrained and molded to be exactly where he’s at today in his life.”

“And if you know anything about Texas high school football, I would say his resume and what he did makes him hands down the best Texas high school football player to ever play ever in the state of Texas,” Manziel added. “I don’t know if he lost a game, maybe one, and that would have to be checked. And what this kid did made circles not from just Dallas, not just Houston, not just Austin, from the top of the tip to the bottom and from east to west [of Texas].”

Manziel was correct, with Murray boasting a 43-0 record as a starter at Allen High School, leading his team to three straight state championship wins. Also named the Gatorade Football Player of the Year and becoming the first player to be named Mr. Texas Football twice.

With the help of Manziel, Murray made Texas A&M his school of choice one year after Manziel’s departure. But during that year, former five-star quarterback Kyle Allen won the starting job during the season as a true freshman over Kenny Hill. Resulting in a quarterback competition between Allen and Murray ahead of the 2015 season.

“After I left the direction of the program I felt lost a lot of its stability. We had really good coaches in our organization but we didn’t hone in, and detail, and work, and focus on one guy who was going to be our guy,” Manziel said.

“They played this game of back and forth and not,” — “settling on a guy,” Sharpe said finishing Manziel’s sentence.

“It’s Kyler Murray, what are we talking about? Lost one game in his whole career, you’re not gonna go give this guy the keys?” Manziel asked. “I don’t care what he’s doing, college is the time as a freshman, you mold men. You mold these guys into what you want them to be.”

Murray and Allen would both start games for the Aggies during the 2015 season, with the back-and-forth nature of the position clearly getting the best of both quarterbacks. As Allen would transfer to Houston following the season and Murray to Oklahoma.

But Manziel also believed that head coach Kevin Sumlin lost sight of what he needed to do as the Aggies’ head coach. Distracted by things like his new contract, entering the SEC, renovating Kyle Field, winning 12 games, and having a Heisman Trophy winner under his belt following Manziel’s breakout 2012 season.

“Your focus shifts from what the main thing is to a whole bunch of bulls*** in my opinion. And they didn’t just hone in and they didn’t give the keys and I think a lot of that to be said has to deal with Kyle Allen as well. I think he made it very difficult behind the scenes for what people didn’t know to just give Kyler the keys,” Manziel revealed. “And in my opinion, where our program is now as a football program, that is the one step and one thing and mistake that we made that is keeping us from being where we want to be and especially during that time why we didn’t have success.”

The rest would be history for Murray, who’d go on to take home the 2018 Heisman Trophy after throwing for 4,361 yards and 42 touchdowns for the Sooners along with 1,001 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground. A reality that could have potentially existed in College Station and doesn’t sit well to this day with Manziel after recruiting Murray over a decade ago.

“I worked my ass off behind the scenes to get Kyler Murray to Texas A&M. Loved him, loved what he stood for, loved who he was as a kid, loved that he looked up to me at that point in time,” Manziel said. “And my how times have changed since then, but at that point in time the look I got in his eyes when I hosted him around and took care of him was that he looked up to me as something. He wanted to be like me and I can see that in his eyes as a kid.”

“I have a very mixed emotions and strong feelings about that with what happened through it.”