High school football: Manning next in line to star at Quarterback High

LOGAN — BYU was known as Quarterback U. for nearly two decades under LaVell Edwards with all of the quality QBs that went through the program.

In the lower ranks, Logan High has established itself as Quarterback High in Utah for much of the same reasons. Ryan Bohm and Ben Macey were outstanding QBs earlier this decade, but Riley Nelson took the school's reputation to new heights with his absolute dominance for two years.

Jeff Manning is next in line at Quarterback High.

Coming off a junior season in which he threw for 2,280 yards and 29 touchdowns, the highly-recruited 6-foot-5 senior is poised for even bigger and better things this season.

"He's made great strides in the offseason, his technique has improved immensely and his understanding of what we do has also progressed, so he's in a position to have a great season," said Logan coach Mike Favero.

The colleges have taken notice as well. Manning was invited to the University of Oregon and University of Washington camps this summer, and he's also gone to in-state camps at BYU, Utah and Utah State.

Manning's combination of size and athleticism is what the college coaches love. He'll never be as quick and dominant as Nelson was, but he's got the size and arm strength that realistically prevented Nelson from ending up at any college in the country.

"He's going to be a good runner," said Favero. "He doesn't appear to look like one, he's got a great stride and he covers a lot of ground, and he's become a tough football player."

Manning rushed for 10 touchdowns during his junior season, including one each on fourth-down scrambles in the playoffs against Park City and Delta.

Even though there's really no comparison between Nelson and Manning, Logan's coach sees slight similarities in their learning curve. Nelson struggled during the first half of his junior season in 2004, but he thrived the rest of the year and dominated the entire state in 2005. Manning went through the same learning curve in the early portions of his junior season, but he'd really started to grasp the offense by midseason.

Manning spent a lot of time since last season working with Favero to better understand how to read defenses, and as a result he'll call a lot of Logan's plays at the line of scrimmage. Favero believes that empowering kids brings out the best in them.

That's a big reason why Logan is a big favorite to repeat as 3A state champions.