Glen Powell reveals the tips he got from Eli and Peyton Manning to play quarterback in ‘Chad Powers’

What began as Eli Manning’s undercover tryout at Penn State has become a six-episode Hulu comedy and, as Chad Powers’ co-creators Glen Powell and Michael Waldron tell it, the leap from viral bit to scripted series only worked if the football felt real.

The pair, college football diehards (Powell a Texas fan, Waldron a Georgia alum), explained on the Rich Eisen Show that they pitched the Mannings on a Mrs Doubtfire-style premise: a program chasing a national title while its starting quarterback isn’t quite who he says he is.

Mannings’ mechanics masterclass

If the plot supplied the laughs, Eli and Peyton supplied the standards. Powell says every practice clip he shot was funneled to the brothers, who fired back granular notes: check your fingers before the snap, fix your eyes, read the safety, clean up the release...

“People who really know football are going to look at it and go, ‘That’s head-to-toe legit,’” Powell said. The brothers also opened doors to top tutors – including a private QB coach linked to Patrick Mahomes – and veteran NFL assistant Pat O’Hara to tune footwork, timing and pocket movement.

Authentic on the field and in the writers’ room

Eli didn’t just critique what he saw on the tape. He sat in the writers’ room to stress life around the game: meetings, travel, the pressure of Saturdays, and how a quarterback actually lives between snaps. For Waldron, it was like having a human encyclopedia of college-QB reality on call, and the occasional roast.

After Waldron emailed a family-game touchdown clip, Eli returned a full ManningCast-style teardown of his form, graphics and all.

You can watch the full interview above. Chad Powers premieres with two episodes on Hulu, with new instalments dropping Tuesdays.

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