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Peyton Manning looked at the end of last season like he was running on fumes. But his old coach says Manning is going to surprise people with how healthy he is this season.

David Cutcliffe, the Duke head coach who was Manning’s college offensive coordinator at Tennessee and who still trains Manning in the offseason, says that when they worked out together this spring, Manning looked great.

“I thought he looked really healthy,” Cutcliffe told the Denver Post. “We had talked about nutrition, about sleep, about recovery. He’s really so, so smart. So brilliant and so disciplined. But there’s another level, always. I thought he looked really fit. I thought his core was great. I watched him train inside, and he looks good and he’s strong where he needs to be strong, and he didn’t show anything at all from the quad. And we talked a lot about flexibility.”

Cutcliffe says Manning never stops impressing him with his work ethic.

“I’m amazed at times,” Cutcliffe said. “We’re doing this in an indoor facility with nobody watching and I watch his focus, his intensity, the absolute desire for every rep to be as good as it can be — that hunger is pretty amazing at this stage. But that’s what successful people do.”

Manning is desperate to have one more successful season. And, more importantly, one more successful postseason.