Oklahoma football: OU's Tom Wort and Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel have tangled before

But one little known connection came to light this week: Texas A&M freshman phenom Johnny Manziel encounters linebacker Tom Wort, who the Heisman winner praised as among the best players he faced in high school.

The two individual seasons make the Manziel-Wort connection intriguing. Manziel emerged from a four-man, preseason quarterback derby, led an upset at defending national champion Alabama and became the first freshman ever to win the Heisman Trophy; Wort, on the other hand, saw his role diminish in a new coordinator's scheme that didn't rely much on — and sometimes completely excluded — linebackers.

“I've always been impressed with him since I was a freshman in high school,” Manziel said, who volunteered his Wort admiration during a broad response to a question about Oklahoma's defense.

Wort and Manziel scrimmaged against one another years ago as Texas prep standouts at New Braunfels High School and Tivy High School, respectively.

Before Wort's senior year, Manziel, then a sophomore, played wide receiver for Tivy; he didn't move to quarterback until the fourth game that season. Wort's younger brother Charles, now a freshman safety at Texas-San Antonio, clashed with Manziel after his move under center.

“He's gone against the Worts a couple of times,” Tom Wort said. “That'll be fun to go against him again.”

Manziel, speaking at Sunday's Cotton Bowl Media Day on the Cowboys Stadium field, called Wort “one of the fastest players I ever played against in high school.”

“He was awesome,” Manziel said. “We'd scrimmage them every year. He was at New Braunfels and some of the things he did ... I've been a fan.”

Wort's college career has taken a couple disappointing turns since last January, though. First, former OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables bolted Norman for the same job at Clemson; Wort's close relationship with Venables made his departure very difficult.