Johnny Football to Johnny 'GQ'

• Johnny Manziel enlisted his family's help in getting dressed for the college football awards circuit
• Manziel is considered a close favorite in the Heisman race, ahead of Manti Te'o and Collin Klein
• Manziel, who would be the first freshman winner, set the SEC record for total offense this season

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – When it became apparent a month ago that Johnny Manziel would spend the first week of December at various awards ceremonies, he called home for help.

"Uncle Harley," he said, "I just want to look like you for a day."

It was a shrewd and important move, because his mother's initial idea, when it came to what college football's newest star would wear, was simply to have some of his father's suits altered.

"I told 'em that was crazy," said Harley Hooper, Manziel's uncle, who has been selling fine men's clothing for 40 years, and owns stores in Manziel's hometown of Tyler, Texas, as well as his new home of College Station. "And I took over."

When Texas A&M's quarterback attends the Home Depot College Football Awards on Thursday night in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., he'll be wearing a gray, tailored suit with a subtle, salmon-colored stripe. Atop a maroon-and-blue windowpane shirt, he'll add a maroon-and-gray tie.

"We wanted it to be a little casual, not so serious," Hooper says. "We didn't want him to look like he was running for office."

There's one other important item, chosen by Johnny, to complete the ensemble. When he discovered them on the Internet, he called his mother, very excited:

"Scooby socks!"

It's a clear nod to the vibrant sock stylings worn by Robert Griffin III, last year's Heisman Trophy winner. It's also an illustration of the impish nature of a kid – Manziel's 20th birthday is today – who is viewed, according to his mother Michelle Manziel, "as a superhero, but he's a little character." And, it's a way of payinghomage to one of the more entertaining memes that has emerged in the growing legend of Johnny Football.

For Halloween, Manziel climbed into a big, shaggy costume that resembled the lovable cartoon character. When photographs went viral, Johnny Football as Scooby Doo proved irresistible to Twitter and Internet sites and even to ESPN anchors. At a couple of games, fans wore similar costumes – they wanted to look like Johnny for the day. Yeah, Manziel noticed. Of all the nutty things his new fans have done, he says, "I'm probably gonna put that at the top."

Manziel is a finalist for the Davey O'Brien and Maxwell awards, which will be announced on the ESPN broadcast. He's also the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, which will be awarded Saturday night in New York. If awarded the Heisman, he would become the first freshman to win college football's most prestigious individual trophy.

"I haven't really grasped the whole entirety of it yet," Manziel says.

But really, who has? This time four months ago, Manziel was expected to finish second in a competition to replace first-round draft pick Ryan Tannehill as Texas A&M's quarterback. There was no reason to suspect amazing was about to unfold, unless you count the high-school highlights on YouTube. But if you hadn't seen 'em, you wouldn't believe 'em.

A few years back, Uncle Harley and Aunt Bridgette didn't believe what they kept hearing about what the kid was doing at Kerrville's Tivy High School. Johnny's father John Paul Manziel kept urging them to see a game. But it was a six-hour drive, and, well, "We thought it was just a proud father and mother (talking)," Hooper says. Then John Paul sent a DVD with some highlights.

"Oh my gosh," Bridgette recalls thinking, "this is unbelievable."

They weren't the only ones who had to see to believe. Texas A&M offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury was in the same role at Houston, when he kept hearing from friends telling him about Manziel, calling him the "best high school player they'd ever seen."

When he finally saw a game, he agreed. But Houston didn't recruit Manziel because he was already getting offers from more prominent schools. Give Sumlin and Kingsbury plenty of credit, though, because they somehow saw Manziel's ability during practices, when quarterbacks aren't tackled or even hit, when coaches blow whistles quickly to prevent injury to their passers. Manziel's most spectacular ability, those wonderful improvisations, never became apparent until he got into actual games.

Against Florida, which became the Aggies' season opener after a game with Louisiana Tech was postponed by Hurricane Isaac, Manziel ran circles around the Gators in the first half, then faltered in the second half. Kingsbury says, "that's on me. I didn't know how to use him yet" – but it was already apparent Manziel was special.

"The first game," says Bridgette Hooper, "changed our lives forever."

If not that game, certainly the next few. Manziel shattered the SEC record for total offense, with 4,600 yards, besting Cam Newton's two-year-old mark. He led the league in rushing and scoring. More important, he led Texas A&M to 10 victories, which might be double the total many would have predicted for the Aggies in their first season in the SEC. And on Nov. 10, when he engineered an upset of Alabama, the legend of Johnny Football caught fire.

But the allure isn't only what Manziel has accomplished, but how. With a flair for the impromptu. With all of those dramatic dashes to who knows where that somehow end up working their way into must-see TV.

Adding to the mystique, Manziel wasn't allowed to talk with reporters until last week, after the completion of the regular season. It's Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin's regular policy for freshmen, but as Manziel piled up highlights and victories – including a shocking upset of then-No. 1 Alabama in Tuscaloosa – the silence kept people wondering: Who is this guy?

When Manziel finally took questions, his answers were thoughtful and occasionally funny (asked about the legend, he said it's still "more of a folk tale"), and the overall impression was positive. Here's just one example, on what it would mean to win the Heisman:

"It would be one of the best memories of my life, to bring a Heisman Trophy back to Aggieland," he says. "It's something that is truly an ultimate goal."

A note: Manziel uses the term "Aggieland" – which, loosely defined, is less a geographic region than Aggie culture, everywhere – as freely and correctly as if he's been an ambassador for the school for 40 years rather than four months. It's only one example, and we've barely begun to hear him speak, but he's polished.

That's also Uncle Harley's goal for his nephew in these next few days, as Johnny Football takes a very large stage.

For an awards banquet Manziel attended in Birmingham, Ala., on Monday, where he was named the Southeastern Conference's "Back of the Year," Hooper chose a gray suit with a bow tie. "He looked really good and cool and young," Hooper says.

For the Heisman ceremony, Uncle Harley picked out a navy suit in a close-fitting, European fit, because "it's all about the fit," he says, "and Johnny can pull it off." Manziel will wear a marine blue, striped tie with a satin finish. "It's gonna look really good at night and in front of the cameras," Hooper says. "I mean, it's pretty – the girls in the store went crazy."

The idea for all three events was to create a classic, sophisticated and timeless look. Hooper says the goal is for his nephew to look like he's popped out of "the pages of GQ, a movie star in a great-looking suit." It's exactly what Johnny Football hoped for when he called for help.

"If I was gonna dress like somebody," he says, "I would dress like (Uncle Harley) every single day."

But underneath he'll be wearing something suited to a unique character:

"Scooby socks!"