A Manning is coming back to the Indianapolis Colts, just not the one that everyone associates with the franchise.
The University of Cincinnati’s offensive coordinator, Tom Manning, is rejoining the organization after his one-year stint with the team in 2018.
Let’s take a look at three things to know about the new tight end coach under Shane Steichen:
1
Winning his high school's first state championship
Winning a state championship in high school doesn’t guarantee success as a coach but in Manning’s playing career, he was a first-team All-State player for Ursuline High School in Youngstown, Ohio. He helped guide his school to its first state championship. He would go on to play college ball at Mount Union, where he would meet Matt Campbell, Iowa State’s head coach.
2
College coaching career
Manning began his coaching career at the high school level in Ohio before he ended up moving up to the college level as an offensive line coach and run game coordinator at Emory & Henry. He ended up moving to Toledo as a graduate assistant. Manning would end up as their Director of Operations before going back to his alma mater Mount Union to be their offensive line coach.
In 2012, Manning would end up reconnected with Campbell back in Toledo and would end up following him to Iowa State where he ended up as their offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. That lasted for a couple of seasons before Manning had his one-year stint in Indianapolis before he went back to Iowa St. in 2019.
He was able to put together some strong seasons as the offensive coordinator with Brock Purdy under his tutelage. In 2019 and 2020 he was nominated for the Broyles Award, which is given to the top assistant coach at the college level. Iowa State would end up parting ways with Manning after the 2022 season but he was able to land the offensive coordinator job with the University of Cincinnati.
3
One-year stint with the Colts
While Manning’s previous time with the franchise was brief, his position group did excel under him. There can be more credit towards Frank Reich’s offense being friendly for tight ends and Andrew Luck throwing them the ball, but the group did excel under his coaching.
Eric Ebron put together the best season of his career with 750 yards and 13 touchdowns to earn Pro Bowl honors. After working with Ebron, Jack Doyle, and Mo Alie-Cox in 2018, we will see if Manning can elevate the play of Alie-Cox, Jelani Woods, and Kylen Granson.
