NEW ORLEANS — Buddy Teevens was the head coach at Tulane University in 1994, desperately seeking Superman, when 17-year-old Peyton Manning, the nation’s No. 1 high school recruit, came to see him in his office.
Archie Manning’s son had attended Teevens’ football camp at Tulane the previous two summers, so there was at least a glimmer of hope that the downtrodden Green Wave miraculously might beat out SEC heavyweight Tennessee and sentimental favorite Ole Miss, Archie’s alma mater, for Peyton’s signature on a national college letter of intent.
“How legitimate an opportunity we had, I’m not sure,” Teevens admitted this week from his football office at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where has served as head coach since 2005.
But what happened next always will remain with Teevens, who had grown close to the Manning family, including Peyton’s little brother Eli, through his New Orleans football camp.
“This 17-year-old guy came into a head coach’s office by himself and just said, ‘I really appreciate being recruited by you, but I’ve made my decision. I’m going to Tennessee,’ ” Teevens said. “I thought it was such a classy thing. It meant doing things the right way. He wanted sit down and tell me face to face. For most 17-year-olds, that’s hard to do.”
Even though Teevens never got Peyton or Eli to play for him — probably one reason he wound up leaving Tulane after the 1996 season — his bond with the Manning family has been cemented over the past 18 years. Teevens has served as associate director of the Manning Passing Academy, a mega-football camp in Thibodaux, La., that in July attracted 1,200 athletes, drawn to the football Mecca by the prospect of getting actual face time with Peyton and Eli, owners of three Super Bowl championship rings.
As Teevens watched Peyton shred the Ravens defense with seven TD passes in Week 1, he thought back to the 2012 Manning Passing Academy when Peyton still was strengthening his right arm from the neck surgery that had threatened to end his career. In those four days, he saw the same grit and determination he had seen from the 17-year-old who had walked into his football office 18 years earlier: courage, perseverance and mental toughness.
Teevens said Peyton’s seven-TD performance was the dividend of hard work, not some miracle.
“I was proud to see it because I value the qualities he demonstrates off the field,” Teevens said. “He does things the right way. He has tremendous work ethic. I use that with my daughters. I tell them, ‘Do you see what just happened? That’s consistency, dedication, resilience and toughness, mental and physical.’
“In watching him work at camp [in 2012], you knew how badly he wanted to get back to the form that he had and how hard he was willing to work for it. He’s got just a relentless pursuit of perfection. Most of us will hit a bump in the road in life, and that was his bump. He could’ve just called it a day and opted to pursue something else, but he values what he does. It’s tough on a player to be knocked out of the game for a long period of time. There’s the uncertainty. Is it going to be the same? What do I have to do? It was incredible to see his burning desire to succeed.”
Teevens said Eli has shown similar mental toughness, epitomized by his fourth-quarter prowess after things may not have gone well earlier in a game.
“I give him tremendous credit because he is the younger brother of a guy who has achieved a rare level of success at the college and pro level, and he’s trying to do the same thing in that world,” Teevens said. “That’s a hard thing. But they both have toughness. You can take a whack at ’em and they’re both going to pop back up. It’s resilience — throw a couple of picks but come right back in a two-minute drive to win the game. They are unflappable, mentally and emotionally.”
And now that Manning Bowl III awaits — Peyton is 2-0 over Eli (26-21 in 2006 and 38-14 in 2010, both while Peyton was with the Colts) — Teevens said the brothers will have less of an emotional problem than their parents.
“The true challenge is with Olivia and Archie,” Teevens said. “Both of them want them both to have great games, but these brothers are going to be out there to compete. Probably the biggest competition they ever had was playing pickup basketball with [eldest brother] Cooper or playing horseshoes. The brothers are competitive. The Manning family is highly competitive. Archie and Olivia are probably going to be the most uncomfortable.”