BY JESSE SMITHEY
Thomas Manu didn’t make many major mistakes during his first season as starting quarterback.
So it wasn’t hard for him this week to recall the two interceptions he tossed during his first season as the starter for Alcoa.
The first came on a tipped ball in the first round of the playoffs against Cherokee.
Three weeks later, the second happened during a state semifinal win at Greeneville.
“The safety made a great play, I’m not going to lie,” Manu said. “He was in the middle of the field and we ran a wheel route to Jaylen Penson, and he (the Greeneville safety) sprinted his butt over there and got there and made a great play on the ball.”
Those two hiccups hardly derailed Manu and Alcoa; rather, consider them small teaching moments during the program’s journey to an 11th consecutive state title — and first in Class 4A.
Manu, the 5Star Preps 2025 Offensive Player of the Year, completed 80.4 percent of his 229 passes and finished with 3,099 yards and 45 passing touchdowns.
He threw just as many TDs (45) as he did incompletions (45) in the 15-game slate. He also ran 71 times for 327 yards and four touchdowns.
The task of being QB1 at Alcoa didn’t cast a feeling of burden upon him.
Manu relished the responsibility.
“I felt great pride,” Manu said. “I was very happy at the end of the day. Coming in as a first-year starter and accomplishing that, I felt very proud of myself. To be honest, I didn’t feel a relief, I guess. I had a great time going through the season and playing all the competitors we had to play against.”
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Manu began playing quarterback at around age 5, he said.
“I just fell in love with it,” Manu said. “It always just stuck to me.
“Around my sixth-grade year, that’s when I knew I had the love for quarterback, and I wanted to play in college at that position.”
But at that time, Manu lived in California. He and his family didn’t move to Tennessee until 2023. He spent his freshman year at Maryville High School before enrolling at Alcoa.
Entering the 2024 season, Alcoa already had a proven winner at QB1 in then-senior Eli Graf — who went on to win 2024 Class 3A BlueCross Bowl MVP honors — so Manu played in the Alcoa secondary on top of his reserve quarterback duties. He had five tackles in the 2024 title-game win over Westview.
Putting his dream of being a starting quarterback on the back-burner for that one season wasn’t hard, Manu said.
“It was kind of just working me up to it,” he said. “Being the backup, seeing how the starter moves, how he works around the playbook and everything. It wasn’t really hard; I feel like it helped me more than it hurt me.
“I could sit back and watch and see what Graf did.”
Manu’s even-keeled temperament naturally mirrored Graf’s, and so Manu vibed with and absorbed how Graf operated.
Once Manu became the starter, his personality perfectly matched up with the mindset often needed to be a reliable, consistent and successful starting quarterback.
“It’s just how Thomas lives his life. He’s a great kid. He’s a great individual,” Alcoa coach Brian Nix told 5Star Preps following the 2025 Class 4A BlueCross Bowl win over Pearl-Cohn. “It means a lot to him. He’s a great leader but he’s a non-vocal leader. He doesn’t say a word, but he leads by example. He’s the hardest worker, and he’s always trying to improve and get better.
“I promise you: he played great today — but he’s not satisfied.”
Manu’s first start came in Week One at home against arch-rival Maryville. He spent much of the first half scrambling and making the plays on the fly. But a late home-run, deep-ball touchdown to JaColby Cooper in the waning moments of the first half not only flipped the momentum in Alcoa’s favor for good but it also seemed to be the seminal moment of the season for Manu, one that settled him down and foreshadowed the greatness to come.
“I felt very comfortable (going in Week One). After spring practice, it was a little rough and choppy,” Manu. “That was my first-ever live scrimmage as the starter. I kind of expected it to go that way. But I knew that playing safety (in 2024) would help me read the defenses. Being behind Graf and watching how he played, I felt more comfortable going into that first game — more than people would think.”
Manu credited a massive and experienced offensive line for much of his and the team’s offensive success. The unit included 6-foot-9 Texas Tech signee and 6-3 Marlee Watts, who has been all-state many times over.
Sacks on Manu were few.
And with the stable of athletes at skill positions, the onus didn’t fall solely on Manu to produce through the air nor on the ground.
Manu will set out in 2026 to top his 2025 performance. As Nix said, that’s simply the player’s nature.
And admittedly, Manu has already been getting after it.
“Keep training. Keep the grind on. During the offseason, right when the season’s over, I go down to Alabama and train with Galu Tagovailoa, Tua’s dad. He was one of the great factors in me putting on a show this season. My pocket presence, too. There were very little sacks this season. I think it might have been five or so. He has a big thing on pocket presence.
“We work a lot on footwork and stepping up in the pocket and getting out. He was a big factor in that, and I’d love to thank him for that.”
PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS
2025 — Thomas Manu, Alcoa, QB
2024 — Eli Graf, Alcoa, QB
2023 — Braylon Harmon, Catholic, WR
2022 — Walker Martinez, Anderson County, QB
2021 — DeSean Bishop, Karns, RB
2020 — Parker Hughes, Elizabethton, ATH
2019 — Elijah Young, South-Doyle, RB
2018 — Cade Ballard, Greeneville, QB