Dak Prescott

Dak Prescott opens up on what he learned at the Manning Passing Academy

Published Sep. 8, 2016 6:05 p.m. ET

foxsports

Dak Prescott's journey from fourth-round pick to starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys appears to be a meteoric rise.

But the former Mississippi State star was far from an unknown prospect while in high school. He attended the prestigious Manning Passing Academy, which hosts some of the best high school offensive talent in the country, and took full advantage of the opportunity to learn from two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

"So I wanted to go to just kind of learn some stuff on drops, how the quarterbacks think mentally and things like that and there's no better place to go than the Manning camp, the First Family of Football," said Prescott, who attended as a camper and has twice served as a counsellor, via the Giants' team website. "It was definitely great and it's all worked out apparently."

There's no denying the results. Less than five months after being selected with the 135th pick, Prescott will be under center when the Cowboys face the Giants on Sunday. Ironically, his debut will be against one of his tutors, Eli Manning.

"Eli's a real laid-back guy in all three years, I guess you could say," Prescott said. "The one thing I took from Eli is just his demeanor and how calm he was about everything. They'd go out there and have the throwing competition, and him and Peyton would be challenging against each other and Peyton would be so serious and Eli was just like whatever, but he would hit every single target and Peyton was over there mad and Eli would just laugh. So I'll never forget that."

Prescott has been a quick study, indeed. His strong preseason -- finishing with five touchdown passes and no interceptions -- coupled with injuries to Tony Romo and Kellen Moore have placed the 23-year-old QB on center stage.

But if you think the rookie is going to be overwhelmed by the moment, Prescott begs to differ.

"I've been preparing all my life," Prescott said. "Wouldn't have expected for it to happen this early, but it did unfortunately. But life doesn't really change for me, I'm the same. ... For it to be a reality now, to be a starting quarterback, it's fun just to get in the huddle and be around a bunch of great guys and get to play in this division."