HE'S THE MANNING; VOLS' STAR QB DELAYED NFL TO ENJOY COLLEGE.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

They are periodic golf outings, conducted strictly for laughs, and Archie Manning wouldn't miss one.

It gives him a chance to return to a gilded era, nearly 30 years ago, when he was equal parts quarterback and folk hero at the University of Mississippi. Out there on the course, he treasures the time with his college buddies: Skipper Jernigan, Billy VanDevender. Perhaps Rock Ross or Jim Poole.

In recent years, Archie's son started tagging along from time to time. And Peyton Manning admits that several months ago, the excursions began to create for him an epiphany.

As he'd walk along a fairway, he'd hear story after hilarious story about life at Ole Miss. On the team, in the residence halls, at various, uh, social functions. And a fact struck him like a blind-side blitz: I have no stories like these to tell.

Manning realized that his time at Tennessee had been a mad rush not only to be a premier quarterback but an accomplished scholar, too. He achieved both, accumulating enough credits to graduate in three years with a 3.6 GPA and be the projected top pick in last April's NFL draft.

So, after some deliberation, he made a decision that jolted a sports world that otherwise seems driven solely by greed. Peyton Manning spurned the NFL and a likely contract of $20 million or more and returned to school for his final season of eligibility.

This graduate student and Heisman Trophy favorite will be under center for Tennessee when the Volunteers play UCLA today at the Rose Bowl.

Manning, who spent his first three years at Tennessee hurrying from class to practice to interviews to dinner to the weight room to late-night study sessions, wanted to hang around long enough to have something to reminisce about.

``Just to be a senior in college. It's something that happens only once in a lifetime,'' he said on the phone the other day. ``I wanted to take advantage of it. . . .

``I'm not sure I missed out. Basically, I'm going to be doing the same things I've done the past three years, but this year it will be different because I won't have to rush everything.''

It has been speculated that other, less-endearing factors weighed on the decision. Namely, that Manning didn't want to have to play for the New York Jets and their new coach, Bill Parcells, whose sideline berating of quarterback Drew Bledsoe at New England was well-chronicled.

The father, Archie, laughs. ``It's really been amazing, the reactions and comments of people,'' he said. ``There wasn't any hidden thing here. He really does love college football. He enjoys the experience. He wants to stay one more year.''

In fact, Archie said, Peyton consulted with Bledsoe and Phil Simms (another former Parcells pupil), and ``heard nothing but good things. In fact, it made the decision harder.''

But college football remained dumbfounded by the decision nonetheless. In the past, underclassmen have gone to court to escape their commitments and get their hands on the NFL money early. Here was a guy who had a degree and soaring pro prospects but looked over the NCAA fine print to see if he could stick around.

``He turned down $20 million-plus,'' said UCLA coach Bob Toledo. ``I was surprised, especially after the little bit of money I tried to chip in.

``He's a great player and he didn't come out. I know he'd be starting for half the teams in the NFL right now. . . . The kid likes college football. He probably has some goals he'd like to reach. I just hope he doesn't reach them all against us.''

Last year, Tennessee began play ranked second nationally to Nebraska. Manning then passed for a school-record 3,287 yards and 20 touchdowns, but the Vols lost to eventual national champion Florida in the season's third week, later tripped over Memphis, and wound up 10-2 and ranked ninth.

Manning insists, however, that he is not viewing his final season as an opportunity to square the ledger. `` `Unfinished business' is not true at all,'' he said. ``. . . Of course things haven't worked out (in the past) like we wanted, but it wasn't because I didn't give it my best shot.''

Peyton Manning began taking those best shots early. It was his birthright.

Playing high school ball in New Orleans, where his dad had had a distinguished if battered career with the NFL's Saints, he quickly emerged as a quarterback with instincts and talent far beyond that of his peers.

``Archie asked me to go over and see him play a couple of times,'' said former Super Bowl coach Hank Stram, who coached the elder Manning on the Saints and lives in Covington, La. ``I was amazed at the similarities. You could tell where the apple fell off the tree - very close.

``Just the way he handled himself, how smart he was in reading defenses, prereading defenses. Afterward, we went back to the house and got the machine out, looking at films. It was just amazing to me that a young guy was that far along.''

A common refrain these days is that Manning is risking a career-ending injury - and forfeiture of millions - by playing another season. He shrugs and says, ``That's not how I view things. The injury factor is always out there. I could get hurt walking to practice after this interview.''

The point is steeped in irony anyway, because Archie, as the No. 3 finisher in the Heisman Trophy balloting in 1970, went to the dreadful Saints as the second selection of the '71 draft.

He was sacked 83 times over his first two years in New Orleans and was sacked 40 times or more in four different seasons, as the Saints, an expansion team in '67, regularly staggered into double digits in losses.

Today's NFL climate might aid Peyton Manning in avoiding a similar fate, however. Back then, a team could build only through the draft, whereas free agency rules today's game. As a direct result, Jacksonville and Carolina, a pair of 2-year-old expansion franchises last year, climbed to the final four of the playoffs.

``You can jump into a tough situation the same way,'' said Archie Manning, comparing fates, ``but you have a chance of coming out of it quicker.''

Peyton Manning will savor one final season of the unique environment of college life before he jumps anywhere.

Keep the money. Keep the acclaim. He can wait on the former. As a star football player in the Deep South, he already has the latter.

``Archie was always - and still is - one of the biggest heroes in the South,'' said Stram. ``You go to Mississippi, hell, they all treat Archie like he's one of the family.''

In Tennessee, Peyton Manning's decision to stay for another season could give him similar status. If he didn't already have it.

``He still hasn't gotten used to it,'' Archie Manning said of his son. ``He went to church in Memphis last summer with his girlfriend's family. It was kind of unannounced - it wasn't their church; nobody knew they were going to be there.

``Well, he walked out and there were six kids waiting with Sports Illustrated covers for him to sign. He just couldn't figure that out.''

Archie chuckled. ``Evidently, their parents went home during the church service and got the Sports Illustrateds. Peyton said, `I'm not sure that makes sense.' ''

The son will shake his head over the incident today.

But in the future, on some golf course, he'll be able to break up his former college chums in the retelling.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) Peyton Manning turned down probable No. 1 draft status in the NFL to enjoy his senior year of college at Tennessee.

(2) Heisman Trophy favorite Peyton Manning spurned a likely pro contract of $20 million or more, realizing that college is more than just a means to an NFL career.

Associated Press