Texas A&M Won't Talk About Johnny Manziel This Week

Texas A&M will hold a press conference tomorrow in anticipation of Saturday's season-opener against Rice and Johnny Manziel will be noticeably absent, in body and spirit. The Aggies will not make Manziel available to reporters and the athletic director, Eric Hyman, has instructed the coaches and players to avoid speaking about him.

“The focus of our coaches and student-athletes is solely on preparing for Rice this Saturday, and in the best interests of Texas A&M and the 100-plus student-athletes on the team, I have instructed Coach Sumlin, his staff and our student-athletes to refrain from commenting on or answering questions regarding the status of our starting quarterback, Johnny Manziel.”

Manziel's status has been kind of up in the air—or, at least, uncommented-upon—since the school and the NCAA continue to sort out the scandalous signing-pictures-for-money ordeal. The tightened lips in College Station have many thinking that the school expects Johnny Football will be active and starting against Rice on Saturday. Which sounds about right, especially since the AD referred to Manziel as "our starting quarterback."

Nothing's official, though, so you'll have to tune in Saturday at 1:00 p.m.—where else—on ESPN. Like you weren't going to anyway.

Photo credit: Getty

Will Manziel start against Rice? [Statesman]