Manning mentor saw early greatness

Ole Miss head coach David Cutcliffe summoned the redshirt freshman off the bench in the fourth quarter of the 2000 Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn., with the Rebels down 49-9 to West Virginia.

The redshirt freshman threw three touchdown passes, and the final was 49-38.

The redshirt freshman was Eli Manning.

“It’s just a rare thing in the way his mind works,” Cutcliffe told The Post.

“He came off the field and I was asking him about a play that lasted five seconds. And his answer back as to what went through his mind in that five seconds was a 30-second answer. And I was just like, ‘Wow!’ His brain processes so fast, and he’s all about business. I see it when I look in his eyes and I see him play a game. Some people look at it as, ‘Well, he’s emotionless.’ But he’s deep into it.”

Cutcliffe, now the Duke head coach, was an early eyewitness to how and why Manning’s teammates adored and followed him.

“What I would call Eli is: a great crossover leader,” Cutcliffe said. “Because it’s defense, it’s offense, it’s any position. He has the ability of not taking himself too seriously, there’s no ego. He’s easy to like he’s sincere, he’s all of those things. Easy E you know? There’s a lot of people that play with the intensity he has that kinda carry that intensity around all the time or maybe can even be a little standoffish but not Eli, he’s pretty much an open book.”

Cutcliffe never doubted that Eli Manning and New York would be a match made in heaven.

“I thought he had the emotional, mental makeup to make it in New York,” Cutcliffe said. “And you know and I know not everybody can make it in New York. It takes a special guy.”

Cutcliffe will be preparing to face North Carolina on Oct. 2, so he won’t be able to make it to MetLife Stadium for Manning’s special day Sunday.

“I knew he was gonna be successful, I knew he was gonna be a great pro quarterback,” Cutcliffe said. “But ... to be a guy that is gonna have your jersey retired there. Hey it’s New York, New York, right?”