Johnny Manziel names his Mount Rushmore of former Texas high school quarterbacks

Johnny Manziel, the former Texas A&M star and 2012 Heisman winner, dazzled when he quarterbacked Kerrville Tivy High School.

Although he played in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, he was able to see what kind of numbers other prep quarterbacks who played immediately before and after him around the state were putting up. They were gaudy, pin ball machine kind of stats. Manziel, literally, grew up in the renaissance period for Texas High School quarterbacks.

Former NFL great Shannon Sharpe, who hosts the podcast Club Shay Shay, interviewed Johnny Manziel this week and asked him about a host of issues. And there was this one question that prompted Manziel to spew a slew of names. Who would be on Manziel’s Mount Rushmore of Texas prep quarterbacks? Well, to even earn a spot on the list, you’d almost need to have a Heisman in the trophy case to go along with your No. 1 NFL draft status.

“I mean, this is an impossible list,” Manziel told Sharpe.

Well, who ya got, Johnny Football?

Manziel’s top choice is Kyler Murray, the Arizona Cardinals starting quarterback who first began turning heads at Allen High School near Dallas. Murray led his high school to three state championships and was 42-0 as a starter through 2014.

Murray signed with A&M in 2015, two years after Manziel finished his career in College Station. He transferred to Oklahoma, won the Heisman and became the top pick of the 2019 NFL Draft.

Sharpe started tossing names. He mentioned Vince Young, the No. 3 pick of the 2006 NFL Draft and Heisman runnerup who led the Texas Longhorns to a national championship. Young starred at Houston Madison, where he generated 12,987 yards before offenses truly went up tempo. But Young didn’t make the Manziel cut. Neither did Drew Brees, who won MVP of the Super Bowl and the NFL. Brees started his career quarterbacking Westlake High School, outside Austin, to a state title.

Another missing name? Patrick Mahomes starred at Whitehouse High School outside Tyler in East Texas. But Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl MVP, did not win a Heisman at Texas Tech. Instead, he was the 10th pick of the 2017 draft. You know the rest.

Another Austin resident made the Manziel list. Baker Mayfield, the top pick of the 2018 Draft and Heisman winner at Oklahoma did. Mayfield, now the QB of the Bucs, led Lake Travis High School to a state title in 2011.

And there’s another Heisman winner. That’s Robert Griffin, or RG3. Griffin’s parents were in the Army, but they retired in Copperas Cove near Fort Hood in Killeen. Griffin stayed close to home when he signed with Baylor. He won the 2011 Heisman and became the second pick of the draft the next April.

There were two non-Heisman winners on the Johnny Manziel top five. Before Andrew Luck was the No. 1 pick of the 2012 draft, he quarterbacked Stratford High School in Houston. He also was the co-valedictorian of his class. To show you how deep the state’s quarterbacks are, consider that the 2012 draft featured three Lone Star QBs chosen in the top 10. There was Luck, Griffin and Ryan Tannehill, the pride of Big Spring High who preceded Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M.

And the final Manziel selection was a “legacy” choice. Matthew Stafford, before he won a Super Bowl with the Rams, led Highland Park High School in Dallas to a state title. Stafford was the top pick of the 2009 draft.

You can check out the rest of the Johnny Manziel interview here.