Manziel talks about his pledge

Johnny Manziel told Oregon coach Chip Kelly when they met after camp that if an offer came his way he wouldn't turn it down. The Kerrville (Texas) Tivy dual-threat quarterback wasn't kidding and soon after the Ducks offered him he committed and isn't looking back.

"(Kelly) knew how interested I was and how much I really did love the program and them and everything like that," Manziel said. "The reason he didn't offer me on the spot was they had two days of camp left so they thought maybe some other guys could come in and they wanted to give everybody a chance which is perfectly understandable.

"Whenever I got an e-mail telling me to call earlier than I was supposed to I knew good news was behind it so as soon as they told me I had a full scholarship I told them I wanted to be a Duck."

Oregon blew Manziel away from the facilities to the coaching staff to the school itself and many other things as well. Baylor, Colorado State, Iowa State, Rice, Stanford, Tulsa, Wyoming and others offered but nothing felt right like Oregon for Manziel, a 6-foot-1, 193-pound three-star prospect.

"It was just everything about it," Manziel said. "It felt so good to finally find a place where I felt it was a home away from home. That's really what it came down to for me. I wanted to go to a place where my gut feeling was I'm going to enjoy being here for the next four or five years.

"The other thing that really stuck out to me was their coaching staff has been there for 15 to 20 years, some of the guys have been there for that long. You really don't find that in college football so that stuck out to me. There's something special about it and I loved everything about it."

Like many other prospects that visit Oregon, Manziel was blown away by the extravagant facilities in Eugene but he said more than anything it was his relationships with the coaches and the feeling he got on campus that really sold the place to him.

"It's absolutely overwhelming, their facilities and what's in store for their future with a brand-new football complex about to be built on top of what they already have," Manziel said. "It's so amazing. You can't just look at that, you have to make sure everything else fits and it really did for me."

In his junior season, Manziel threw for 2,782 yards with 19 touchdowns and five interceptions. He also rushed for 1,529 yards and 33 scores, proving that he clearly has dual-threat capabilities that will boost the Ducks' offense.