By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

THIBODAUX, La. – The Manning Passing Academy began in 1996.

And, after wrapping up its 28th edition Sunday afternoon here at John L. Guidry Stadium on the campus of Nicholls State University, the annual affair is bigger and better than ever.

Over 1,500 campers participated in the 2024 camp, which was once again directed by the Manning family of Archie, Peyton, Eli and Cooper.

“This was our biggest group of campers so far,” Archie Manning said. “We sold out in October. In addition, we had probably 110 coaches, and around 46 starting college quarterbacks were here as counselors also.”

The camp began 12 years after Archie retired from a long career in the National Football League. The MPA bounced around between multiple different college campuses throughout Louisiana in its first decade, most notably Tulane and Southeastern Louisiana. But in 2005, it found its permanent home here at Guidry Stadium.

The camp is open to the top high school quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends in the country going into their eighth-through-twelfth grade seasons. Campers attend seminars, participate in meetings, run through drills, and scrimmage one another over three days of camp. Archie Manning said the goal is to make every player better.

“We feel real strongly: if a young man chooses to play high school football, we think he should have a good experience, and we want to enhance that experience and that’s what we try to do,” he added.

The camp opened on Thursday and closed out with the final sessions on Sunday morning before campers and counselors hit the road back to their respective homes.

Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott, Joe Burrow, and Josh Allen are some NFL stars who shined in Thibodaux over the years.

Archie Manning said he never expected the camp to grow past a regional event.

“I would have never anticipated this,” he said. “Especially if you’d have told me we’d have kids coming from 47 states and even Canada like we did this year, I’d have said, ‘Nah, no way’.”

There was a very good representation from the Southeastern Conference this year, as usual, as Georgia’s Carson Beck, Missouri’s Brady Cook, Jaxson Dart of Ole Miss, Graham Mertz from Florida, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier and Alabama’s Jalen Milroe all were involved as was Oklahoma’s Jackson Arnold, Mississippi State’s Blake Shapen and a pair of quarterbacks from the University of Texas in Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning.

Also in attendance was Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard, who played his prep ball at Fairhope (Ala.) High School. He enjoyed several standout seasons at Duke, before heading to South Bend. Leonard recently spent some time in his home state working with George County standout quarterback Deuce Knight, who is committed to play for the Fighting Irish as well, under the tutelage of former NFL All-Pro Phillip Rivers.

“Great kid,” Leonard said, of Knight. “Always willing to learn. I’ll say that’s the biggest thing about Deuce. He’s always asking questions. ‘Hey, how do you do this? What are you thinking here? How do you do this off the field?’ Constantly asking questions and eager to learn. For a kid with that much hype, it shows a lot about his character.” 

The camp has become a premier offensive skills camp for high schoolers across the country, and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

In 2023, the Mannings and Nicholls State University extended their contract through 2028, keeping the camp in town for years to come. In a show of appreciation of and respect towards the family, the school renamed its playing field prior to 2007’s camp. For the last 17 years, every athlete that has set foot in John L. Guidry Stadium has done so on Manning Field.

“You just can’t believe the response we get on our website from parents and so-forth when their child gets home talking about the good time they had with Dak Prescott or the good experience they had with Patrick Mahomes.”