Peyton Manning, Broncos ready to mesh on field

Watching John Fox and Peyton Manning lead separate NFL teams in the previous decade would suggest they have some work to do to get on the same offensive playbook page.

Fox is a head coach raised on the defensive side of the line of scrimmage. He has operated his offense as if half his thoughts are with his defense. Pound the running game. Milk the clock. Keep the defense on the sideline. Mix in an explosive pass play. Pound the running game.

Read more: denverpost.com

Rebels make some progress in spring drills

OXFORD — At the beginning of spring football practice, five weeks and 14 sessions ago, Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said he was not asking for perfection. Passion would come first, execution in time.

With nothing left but Saturday’s Grove Bowl (1 p.m., CSS) to play before the first day of fall camp in August, Freeze is still harping on the latter and putting off the former.

Read more: ClarionLedger.com

Manning joins workouts for Broncos

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Peyton Manning is joining his new teammates Monday at the Denver Broncos headquarters for the start of offseason workouts.

The four-time MVP, who signed with Denver after he was cut by the Colts, has been working out with wide receiver Eric Decker over the last month.

Manning is not only learning a new playbook in Denver but he’s also trying to regain his arm strength following a series of neck operations that sidelined him for all of last season and led to his departure from Indianapolis.

Read more: CBSSports.com

Archie Manning: The personification of a class act

This was in November of 1984 at the end of Archie Manning’s football career when he was playing out the string for the Minnesota Vikings.

I was the sports editor of the late, great Jackson Daily News, an afternoon newspaper.

After Archie toiled so many painful seasons with the hapless Saints, the aptly named Bum Phillips traded him to the miserable Houston Oilers, who then traded him to equally miserable Minnesota. In the NFL, Archie never caught a break. Never. I’ve always thought that there’s some kind of special reverse karma at work for his sons, Peyton and Eli.

Read more: ClarionLedger.com

Manning’s plea: ‘We need to unite’

OXFORD — Within the Ole Miss athletic fan base, there has been division for some time now.

Forward Rebels led a very public and occasionally nasty campaign against outgoing athletic director Pete Boone, and occasionally included Chancellor Dan Jones in its complaints. The group cites its 12,000-plus followers on Facebook as proof the message took hold and that they are far from alone.

Read More: ClarionLedger.com

Ole Miss Football 2011: With Hugh Freeze Hire, Archie Manning Chooses Sides

It was too good to be true for Ole Miss football fans.  Not only did unpopular athletic director Pete Boone announce that he would soon be vacating his post, but more importantly, Boone would have “nothing” to do with selecting a replacement for ousted head coach Houston Nutt. 

Boone and chancellor Dan Jones announced the initiation of a committee to conduct a “national search” for both a head coach and an athletic director, a process that was going to be co-chaired by none other than Archie Manning.

Manning, the man whose No. 18 is the posted speed limit on the Oxford, MS campus, is much more than myth in a place where belief in myth is both a genetic constitution and a religious upbringing. Truth is hard to come by these days with lines so easily blurred by political persuasions, historical ignorance and a cultural aversion to context.  Neither Oxford nor Ole Miss hold the franchise on any of that—its existence is unaffected by geography.

bleacherreport.com
12/6/11