We almost got the Marshall Manning moment that football fans have been waiting on, but it was denied
Would’ve been fun to see, but it wasn’t in the cards for Marshall Manning on Friday night.
We were this close to finally getting the Marshall Manning moment that football fans have been waiting for.
Marshall, the son of Tennessee Vols legend and Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, is a freshman quarterback at Baylor School in Chattanooga this fall. He’s serving as the backup to starter Keegan Croucher, a senior who is committed to Ole Miss.
Croucher didn’t play in the second half of Baylor’s 51-33 win over Rabun Gap on Friday night due to an unspecified injury.
Marshall is Baylor’s No. 2 quarterback, so it should’ve been his time to shine.
But that wasn’t the case since Marshall, as we learned last week, is currently sidelined with a foot injury.
Junior linebacker Cosmo DeMatteo, a former quarterback, replaced Croucher in the second half (Vols five-star commit David Gabriel Georges rushed for 196 yards and three touchdowns to power Baylor to the win).
“Cosmo DeMatteo came in and did a great job. He played quarterback up until last year, so I have a lot of confidence in him,” said Baylor head coach Erik Kimrey after the game (via The Chattanooga Times Free Press). “We will know more about Keegan this weekend. We were being cautious with him with a large lead and with our defense playing well.”
Marshall is expected to miss a “few weeks” with the foot injury, so it’s unlikely he would start in place of Croucher next week if the Ole Miss commit were forced to miss time (Baylor plays at Trinity in Louisville, KY on September 11).
It would’ve been fun to see Marshall play in a game that wasn’t out of reach, but we’ll have to wait a little longer to see the youngster in action (beyond the two snaps we saw him play in Baylor’s opener).
