Fox Sports' Bruce Feldman discusses new book, Manziel and more

Key quotes from Bruce Feldman interview

“The book was a blast to work on. I must have been around Johnny in a dozen different states, whether it was seeing him in Florida for when he was there before the national title game a couple of years ago, or in California at the Auburn vs. FSU game. I think one of the best windows I got to see him in was at Elite 11 ... Nike brings out their heavy-hitters like Desmond Howard and Bo Jackson, and it was funny because a lot of these recruits were huddled near the back because Johnny was just kind of there. To them, Johnny Manziel was the rock star, not Bo Jackson. These younger kids, he's all they know."

“Another thing I found fascinating was in the weeks leading up to the draft, I was there every step of the way as George Whitfield and Kevin O'Connell prepared Johnny to get ready for the draft and to see him learn all about that. You know he's a sharp kid. Those that don't know him may only see his Twitter persona and don't realize how competitive he is and how smart he is.”

“Really what the book is about is quarterback development and evaluation. How many quarterbacks come from the state of Texas that wanted to be Texas Longhorns and aren't? There's a lot of them. Why do not only college coaches get it wrong, but why do NFL coaches still get it wrong on quarterbacks almost 50% of the time?"

"The quarterback business is growing and there are a lot of challenges a quarterback faces. It’s the most important position in sports and it’s the most glamorous position in sports so they deal with a lot of extra stuff. To me, Whitfield was an interesting person to get into because he's connected to so many different people. Trent Dilfer, by his own admission, is haunted by his failures as an NFL quarterback. Even though he won a Super Bowl, he believes that a lot of the stuff he was taught, even at the highest level, was wrong so he's trying to change the way quarterbacks are taught.”

"Tom Rossley, who I talked to for the book, talked about how he saw some comparisons between Brett Favre who he coached in Green Bay and Johnny who he recruited to A&M. He wins the Heisman and does great things at A&M, but a lot of people look at it from the NFL perspective like he’s got to change. He’s got to be more of this and more of that so it was an interesting journey to see how does someone change their wiring even when some of that stuff is makes you great. I thought it was a fun ride.”

"I had some great behind the scenes access with the A&M guys, so you get to see why Kevin Sumlin is so masterful at dealing with all kinds of personalities. You see how Jake Spavital and Kliff Kingsbury worked with Johnny. It's a fun read for anyone, even those who aren't just college football fans.

“There’s a part in the book where Cam Cameron, who is now at LSU, has really been George Whitfield's biggest mentor. He’s talking about the stuff he’s looking for in an NFL quarterback, because everybody has stats if you’re a big time quarterback in college football. He would focus on how they do in fourth downs, how they do in the fourth quarter, and how they do in road games. When he was at the Dolphins, everybody thought he was going to draft Brady Quinn, but Quinn wasn't good in that area.”

“Certain evaluators are really good about certain things, look at Mike Sherman and evaluation of offensive line talent. I think that’s why it’s so fun to see some of this because certain guys miss on a lot of people. A lot of people obviously missed on Johnny. I just talked to J.T. Barrett last week and he told me he grew up wanting to be Vince Young and playing at Texas but the offer never came.”

"Dennis Gile, Kyle Allen's private coach, is a Trent Dilfer protege. Kyle Allen was a kid who was about as smooth and polished QB as there was in that class, and that’s why A&M coaches are so excited about him. There’s no such thing as a can’t miss, but from that class he's about as close as you're going to get.”