Eli Manning 'on fire' at Duke, says QB guru David Cutcliffe

Interesting commments about New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning Wednesday from Duke University coach David Cutcliffie, who was Manning's coach at Ole Miss.

Cutcliffe put Manning and Giants' receivers Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz and Louis Murphy through their paces during recent workouts at Duke. He came away fired up about what he saw from Manning.

"His arm was tremendous during this round," Cutcliffe said on ESPN Radio. "We do a lot of pure, solid, good old-fashioned fundamental things that we have been doing with him since he has been coming to camp with me at Tennessee and at Ole Miss.

"I just have a good feeling about where he is right now," Cutcliffe continued. "I thought he left here really on fire and I'm excited about seeing what is going to happen (this season)."

Manning suffered through a sub-par 2012 season, seeing his passing yards per game drop from 308.3 in 2011 to 246.8 in 2012. The season-long injury struggles of Nicks may have contributed, and there were unsubstantiated some whispers Manning was hurt.

"Well, there are always a lot of things that we don’t read about or know," Cutcliffe explained. "You got little nagging injuries, whether it is him or certainly Nicks being hurt all year never helps. It just changes your team, and the production of a quarterback will be altered in that regard."

Regardless of the fact that it is only April, and he's throwing in shorts, it's good to hear that the coach who probably knows Manning better than anyone likes what he sees.