Manziel is first freshman winner

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, taking college football’s top individual prize Saturday night after a record-breaking debut.

Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o finished a distant second and Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein was third in the voting. In a unique Heisman race, with two nontraditional candidates, Manziel broke through the class barrier and kept Te’o from becoming the first purely defensive player to win the award.

Manziel drew 474 first-place votes and 2,029 points from the panel of media members and former winners. Northern Illinois junior quarterback Jordan Lynch finished seventh and had three first-place votes.

“I have been dreaming about this since I was a kid,” he said during his acceptance speech after hugging his mom, dad and kid sister.

Manziel seemed incredibly calm after his name was announced, hardly resembling the guy who dashes around the football field on Saturday.

Te’o had 321 first-place votes and 1,706 points and Klein received 60 firsts and 894 points.

Just a few days after turning 20, Manziel proved times have truly changed in college football, and that experience can be really overrated.

For years, seniors dominated the award named after John Heisman, the pioneering Georgia Tech coach from the early 1900s. In the 1980s, juniors started becoming common winners. Tim Tebow became the first sophomore to win it in 2007, and two more won it in the next two seasons.

Adrian Peterson had come closest as a freshman, finishing second to Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart in 2004.

But it took 78 years for a newbie to take home the big bronze statue. Johnny Football really can do it all.

Peterson was a true freshman for Oklahoma. As a redshirt freshmen, Manziel attended school and practiced with the team last year, but did not play in any games.

He’s the second player from Texas A&M to win the Heisman — John David Crow took it home in 1957 — and did so without the slightest hint of preseason hype. Manziel didn’t even win the starting job until two weeks before the season.