When Jordan Manning was 2 years old, he loved chocolate chip cookies so much his sister nicknamed him “Chocolate Chip,” which has been shortened to “C.C.” by his friends, family and teammates.
“His mom would bake her own all the time from scratch. He would sit there and finish sheet after sheet and drink milk,” Dale Manning, Jordan’s father, said. “If you didn’t get any when they came out, you weren’t getting any. He was waiting for them when they came out, hot or cold.”
Now, Manning, a fifth-year senior outside linebacker at Towson, uses his insatiable appetite to devour ball-carriers like they are Catherine Manning’s cookies.
But milk and cookies, however, didn’t sculpt an undersized prep defensive end into a 6-foot, 220-pound beast of a tackling machine who has 255 stops in 35 career games entering Saturday’s game at fourth-ranked Richmond (1-1) at 3 p.m.
“He’s a guy that I think has made great strides in maturity,” Towson coach Gordy Combs said. “If you were to tell me this time last year that he would be a leader and captain, I’d say no way. I guess he was waiting for his turn and he didn’t feel like he wanted to step on the toes of the upperclassmen. As soon as the season was over, I saw a different Jordan. He’s done a great job in the offseason.”
Manning has spent countless hours in the weight room trying to strengthen his body and his reputation as a leader on a team that lost eight of its final nine games last season to finish 3-8.
“As the year’s have gone, I’ve matured a lot from my freshman year until now,” Manning said. “I just had to step up the maturity level to the next level. I definitely had to take the role I was appointed to.”
Manning, a reserved, soft-spoken kid known for responding to Combs’ questions with one-word answers, has used his play on the field to do his talking.
“C.C. has always been quiet, even in high school,” Dale Manning said. “I just talked to his high school coach today, and he said the same thing. It was always hard to get C.C. to come out. He was always a good player. He was just quiet, like his mom. But he’s come out a little more, and grown up his senior year. Trying to be a leader, he’s come forward a little bit.”
The native of Mays Landing, N.J., will be counted on heavily against the defending Colonial Athletic Association champion Spiders, who are coming off a 16-0 loss at Virginia.
“Offense always gets the headlines,” Manning said. “We don’t take it to heart. We just know we have to do our thing on defense, do our part and let them get all the glory.”
Glory, OK.
But don’t think about taking his cookies.
