11 Years Ago This Week: Eli Manning Prepared to Put Ole Miss on the Map

Rewind the clocks people, set the time machine back for eleven years, back to 2001. The year where Shaggy let us know it wasn't him, Ja Rule was still somewhat of a star and Jurassic Park was still an operating movie franchise. We'll spare you the part about Tim Burton totally ruining Planet of the Apes with Mark Wahlberg and we'll skip right to the world of college football.

College football fans surely remember 2001 for the Miami Hurricanes behemoth of a squad that beat down Nebraska in the Rose Bowl. Depending on where you stood as a fan perhaps you remember Maryland and Ralph Friedgen ending Florida State's ACC Championship monopoly, only to be destroyed by Florida in the Orange Bowl. 

Now rewind a little bit more. Not to 2000 but to the spring of 2001. For all that we remember about the season, so many people forget the spring that was 2001. That March was the start of the Eli Era in Oxford, Mississippi.

Following Eli's showing in the 2000 Music City Bowl, a game the Rebels would lose, now was the time for Archie's boy to shine at Ole Miss. A fourth quarter that saw Eli go 12 for 20 for 167 yards, three scores and just one interception was all the crowning necessary. Eli had arrived and things surely would begin to look up.

And they sort of did; while the Rebels would not make it to the SEC Championship Eli did get his team to two respectable bowl games and win them. The Independence Bowl, to beat a Nebraska team a year removed from playing for a BCS Championship, and the Cotton Bowl to beat an Oklahoma State team that was lead by none other than Les Miles.

While the wins were not there for Ole Miss in the way folks in The Grove had hoped, Eli's career was nothing short of special. He painted his name all over the Ole Miss record book, right up there with his daddy's. Eli never led the Rebels to an SEC title, but the kid sure put on a show when he took the field.

Sure, Peyton drew all of the major accolades and garnered the Heisman hype, the Heisman most Volunteers fans will tell you was stolen from him. But, Eli did walk away with a couple bowl MVPs, an SEC MVP, the Maxwell and the Unitas award to his credit.

Everyone knows about Eli Manning; the two super bowl MVPs, the two rings, the trade to the Giants on draft day and the rise to one of the NFL's most clutch playoff quarterbacks. That magical run as a starting quarterback all started in March of 2001. Spring ball is where it starts folks. And eleven years ago Eli Manning worked in Oxford to get to where he is today.

Every week here at Your Best 11 we're going to take a nostalgic look back into college football to remind folks of tidbits like Eli Manning getting his start down his path to stardom.