The South Carolina Gamecocks were never in any serious contention to be one of the most highly lauded football recruits in recent history, but that doesn’t mean they still didn’t have a vested interest in where he landed. As it turns out, SC can breathe a little sigh of relief as Arch Manning has decided to take his talents to the Big 12, announcing his intent to attend Texas – A team considered as a sizeable outsider for the National Championship according to the latest Vegas Odds.
Of course, the Longhorns are coming to the SEC in 2025, so maybe the Gamecocks will catch Manning at the tail end of his collegiate career. At the very least SC will avoid another reign of terror from a Manning signal-caller at least for a couple of years.
Who is Arch Manning?
You don’t get much more pedigree than what Manning, a QB from Isidore Newman High School in New Orleans, brings to the table. For starters he was named after his grandfather Archie Manning, the former Ole Miss quarterback who is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and played 13 seasons in the NFL with the Saints, Oilers, and Vikings.
Of course, if your grandfather is Archie Manning, that means your uncles are Peyton and Eli, multiple Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks. Arch is the son of Cooper Manning – the lesser-known in the family but by all accounts just as good of an athlete in his playing days. Cooper had the unfortunate diagnosis of spinal stenosis which curtailed any of his pro football aspirations.
Is Arch That Good?
It’s hard not to be good at football if you’re surname is Manning, after all, QB prospects from all over the country come to study with your family at the annual Manning Passing Academy. This is the kind of tutelage that Arch likely gets on a daily basis.
What Arch Manning has proven though is that he’s not just a name. He has thrown for 5,731 yards and 72 TDs so far heading into his senior season. That has made Manning the #1 overall recruit in the class of 2023.
Texas won out on the Manning lottery over some big-name suitors like Georgia, Alabama, and LSU. Each Manning before this has played in the SEC – Archie and Eli at Ole Miss, Peyton at Tennessee – so the Gamecocks do dodge a bullet there.
The youngest Manning stands in line to make a lot of money with the new name, image, and likeness rules in college sports. Alabama QB Bryce Young reportedly made $800,000 before ever taking a snap with the Crimson Tide, and some people estimate that Manning’s deal could be worth as much as $8 million by his Junior year in Austin.
So far Arch Manning has kept a pretty low profile despite all the hoopla surrounding his recruitment. His Instagram is private and he is following 0 people on Twitter (with over 54k of his own followers).
Manning’s first and only tweet simply read, “Committed to the University of Texas. #HookEm”
