Arch Manning, Texas’ top recruiting catch, unfazed by family legacy, sky-high expectations

NEW ORLEANS — Homecoming win secured in dominant fashion on a humid Friday night, Arch Manning joined the postgame handshake line but didn’t exactly blend in, towering above at 6-foot-4.

Despite his unpretentious manner, he also loomed metaphorically — as the nation’s No. 1-ranked high school recruit and third-generation prodigy of football’s preeminent quarterback family.

He is the grandson of Archie and nephew of Peyton and Eli. He plays for Isidore Newman School, where Peyton and Eli starred, as did Arch’s father Cooper before spinal stenosis ended his athletic career.

All eyes on this night at Michael Lupin Field in the Manning Family Athletic Complex were on Arch. He didn’t disappoint, slinging four touchdown passes and running for another.

State-ranked Riverside Academy mostly was defenseless, although the last player in the handshake line muttered a parting shot at Arch.

“Eli’s better.”

Arch seems unfazed by it all, whether it be familial comparisons, the weight of expectation or his next challenge, the biggest of his 18-year life.

It’s been nearly three months since on June 23 he sent The Tweet that reverberated through college football: “Committed to the University of Texas. #HookEm”

Inundated with media requests, Newman officials and the Manning family have declined most interviews, wanting Arch’s senior season to have at least a semblance of normalcy.

But after the Greenies’ homecoming win, and with a reporter visiting from Dallas, Arch courteously pondered his burnt orange future. He smiled as he spoke about how connected he feels to Longhorn coaches and players. And how Austin’s vibe feels a lot like his native New Orleans.

He especially was enthusiastic when asked about the slew of oral Longhorn commitments that immediately followed his — although his best friend and Newman teammate, tight end Will Randle, teases that it was his June 19 commitment to Texas that started the program’s roll to its top-five recruiting class.

“The goal right after I committed was to get good players,” Arch said. “It’s been fun just getting on the phone with guys. Hopefully we can keep building this class.”

He is a five-star prospect, the bluest hue a chip can get, but the value his commitment is bringing to the Texas program and second-year coach Steve Sarkisian is immeasurable.

While primarily focused on leading Newman to its first state football title — something not even Peyton or Eli were able to do — highly organized Arch is multi-tasking and planning ahead.

He has the option to enroll at Texas as soon as next spring, but he already intimately understands Texas’ offense, having kept meticulous notes and engrossed himself in deep strategic conversations with Sarkisian and Longhorns quarterbacks coach A.J. Milwee.

In short, he’s a Manning.

Athletically he appears to be a composite of his grandfather, uncles and father. Cooper was a standout on Newman’s 1991 state championship basketball team, as was Arch on the Greenies’ title team last spring.

And Arch’s mother, Ellen, was MVP of New Orleans Sacred Heart’s 1986 state volleyball championship match.

Which Manning does Arch emulate? That’s easy, he says: It’s his grandfather, though not the characteristics most fans probably imagine.

“I kind of model my game after his,” Arch said. “And more than that, just his personality. He’s nice to everyone. Keeps in touch with everyone. He’s just a great guy, a great role model for me.”

Manning legacy

Long before he became patriarch of the Manning quarterback dynasty, Archie grew his legend at the University of Mississippi, then the New Orleans Saints, with uncanny elusiveness and improvisation.

At Ole Miss his magical feats made him a national sensation and a Heisman finalist in 1969 and 1970. For the woebegone Saints, he mostly ran for his life.

Peyton and Eli? Let’s just say they aren’t known as fleet of foot. Archie, now 73, chuckles when told that folks see a lot of him in his namesake.

“Well, his uncles were pretty good players,” he said. “They were pocket passers and they were cerebral players.

“I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t a cerebral player. And I ran around a lot. He does that a little bit, too, but that’s OK. We don’t compare. We just kind of enjoy the journey.”

From their top-row seats at Lupin Field, Archie and wife Olivia cheer equally hard for both of their grandsons, Arch and brother Heid, a junior offensive lineman.

For many at 119-year-old Isidore Newman, which has won 108 state championships across all sports, seeing Arch and Heid compete together conjures memories of 1991.

That was the year sophomore quarterback Peyton and senior all-state receiver Cooper led the Greenies to their first state semifinal appearance, a final-minute loss to Haynesville at sold-out Lupin Field.

Two years ago, sophomore Arch led Newman back to the semifinals, losing to No. 1-ranked Lafayette Christian. Last season the Greenies lost in the quarterfinals.

Nelson Stewart has unique perspective of all three Manning eras and most years between. He was a freshman defensive lineman in 1991, played two varsity seasons with Peyton and has coached at Newman for 23 years, the last 18 as head coach.

Stewart says “old-soul” 16-year-old Peyton and “charismatic, funny” senior captain Cooper transformed the program.

Peyton introduced team dinners and movie nights, quiet leadership moves that Stewart has seen Arch emulate these past four years.

“I would say Peyton is still the commander-in-chief of Newman football,” Stewart said.

Managing expectations

Last Thursday, Stewart gathered the Greenies from their cramped, dank locker room beneath the Lupin Field stands and quietly walked them through the south end zone and upstairs to their new locker room and athletic offices.

It’s part of extensive Manning Family complex upgrades, including air conditioning and a new scoreboard for the gym.

Although Peyton lives in Denver, he took an active role designing the locker room. Typical of the Manning way, there was no press conference, no announcement of the unveiling. Players were ushered in. They yelped with glee. Archie watched, quietly.

The Mannings credit Isidore Newman, a private school of 1,200, kindergarten-through-12th grade, for fostering an atmosphere of high achievement, as normally as possible.

“Arch and I have been here since kindergarten,” Heid Manning said. “I think the school and the community have done a good job of making it seem like it’s just ‘Arch and Heid,’ not ‘Arch and Heid Manning.’ “It’s always been regular. I’ve never felt like a Manning kid here.”

The 11-acre campus is in the heart of Uptown, about four miles from the French Quarter and not far from where Peyton and Eli grew up on St. Charles Avenue in the Garden District.

Even though Arch and Heid were bound to the Manning rule of no tackle football until seventh grade, it was clear Arch was on track to continue the family’s quarterback legacy.

Cooper and Ellen Manning wanted to ensure there would be as little fanfare as possible.

“I think sometimes if you want to be treated normal, you’re treated normal,” Cooper said. “If you want a lot of special treatment and make a big deal out of yourself, then you probably create that sort of issue yourself.

“Arch is particularly unassuming and doesn’t want anyone to think he’s any more important than his teammates.”

No freshman quarterback had started in a Newman varsity season opener in at least 40 years, but in the spring of 2019, Stewart sensed that eighth-grader Arch was ready, so he inserted him into a varsity practice.

Before his first play, Arch noticed that the defense was shifting from a Cover 3 zone scheme to Cover 1, primarily man-to-man. Arch checked down and threw a 50-yard touchdown pass. Clearly, he was ready to start for the Greenies the following fall.

His savvy was perhaps only surpassed by his mechanics. Stewart says Arch’s release is the fastest he’s ever seen, on any level. No sooner does his right elbow raise when, in a blink, the ball is gone.

“If you stand behind him, you can hear it,” Stewart said. “Sssst. It’s crazy-fast. You can’t teach that.”

Immediate attraction

The Mannings, of course, know all about recruiting. The frenzy. The pressure. The phone calls. Prying reporters. Fanbases feeding on every morsel of information.

The Mannings informed potential suitors that they would field no early scholarship offers. Arch whittled the list to a relative handful — Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, LSU, Texas, SMU, Virginia, Ole Miss — and asked Stewart to reach out to those schools to gauge their interest.

Texas, coming off a 7-3 season and the firing of Tom Herman, did not seem a likely candidate when Arch opened his recruiting in January 2021, days after Sarkisian’s hiring.

Complicating matters was the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps it was fate that Texas was Arch’s first Zoom visit.

The first face to pop up was Milwee, then 35, who had been an analyst under offensive coordinator Sarkisian at Alabama. This was the first time the Mannings and Stewart, after several phone conversations with Milwee, saw what he looked like.

“Then Sark came on,” Stewart said. “You just saw it with him and Arch right away. It was like ‘Bam.’ ”

Milwee would prove equally instrumental in forging the Arch-Texas bond, but Stewart says he believes it was the depth and authenticity of Arch, Sarkisian and Milwee talking the same football language that made the difference.

They set up Zoom calls each Wednesday where Arch was shown portions of Texas’ offense. Each week meant a new install.

On one occasion, Arch sheepishly apologized for the pinging sound in the background. Turns out he was babysitting some kids in an arcade. Another time, Sarkisian stepped out of Big 12 coaches’ meetings. All the while, Arch’s notebook and Longhorn knowledge became more expansive.

“He was able to go on those Zooms and go two or three Zooms back and remember pass protections,” Stewart said. “It was eerie.”

During periods when college coaches were allowed to visit players in their hometowns, Milwee would arrive in Stewart’s office at 7:45 a.m. with a cup of coffee and remain on campus for 12 hours.

After Arch visited the Texas campus for the first time, Sarkisian FaceTimed Stewart, who walked out to his front yard to take the call.

“Whether I get to work with this kid or not,” Sarkisian said, “the fact that I got to spend an afternoon with him; I just want to thank you.”

The tweet

Cooper Manning says the only role he and Ellen played during recruiting was setting up the trips.

One of the few times Cooper stepped in was the day Arch came home and said Clemson did not feel like the right fit. Father advised son to immediately phone Clemson coach Dabo Swinney.

“That’s a hard call for a 17-year-old,” Cooper said. “I think that’s part of growing up.”

Cooper said he knew Arch had whittled his list to a couple of schools, but Cooper never asked which ones. Nor did Stewart.

Heid Manning accompanied Arch on most of his campus visits and loved them all, but says he couldn’t tell which way Arch was leaning.

Will Randle, Arch’s best friend and favorite receiver since their grade-school flag football days, was weighing offers from Alabama, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Kentucky.

But when Randle and Arch visited Austin on the weekend of June 17-19, it became clear what Randle wanted to do. They were in Sarkisian’s home, finishing breakfast and about to leave for the airport, when Randle asked to have a private conversation with Sarkisian.

Randle emerged from the meeting smiling. Randle’s parents were teary-eyed. Arch congratulated Randle. They sat next to each other on the flight back to New Orleans, but Arch said little about Texas. In fact, Randle suspected his friend might be leaning to Georgia.

By 6:30 the next morning, Manning and Randle were on the Newman practice field, throwing. Later they joined teammates in the sweltering heat, carrying donated lockers from a U-haul into the school attended by Stewart’s 15-year-old daughter, Taylor, who has special needs.

Stewart took a photo and texted it to Sarkisian.

“These kids just came back from their visit,” Stewart said. “That is who they are. I was talking to my wife and trying not to cry.”

That evening, Randle and Stewart were among the tight circle whom Arch phoned to say he was committing to Texas, but they had to promise not to tell anyone because Arch needed to call and thank all the other coaches who recruited him.

At 11:16 the next morning came The Tweet, the first and still only from Arch’s verified account. To date it has 37.9K retweets and 221.5K likes.

“It blew up,” Randle said. “Right after, he had some family and friends over at his house and I remember it was on ESPN. I said, ‘Hey, that’s you.’ "

For the Mannings, it was the perfect, understated way to culminate what had been an old-fashioned recruitment. No ceremony. No cameras. No laying of hats on a table for artificial suspense.

Sarkisian and Milwee already had been informed. But after the Mannings gathered in their kitchen, counted down “3, 2, 1″ and sent The Tweet, they immediately phoned Sarkisian.

“He was in a room with all the coaches,” Cooper said. “That was fun.”

Mind on football

In this age of Name, Image and Likeness, the financial opportunity that awaits famous, handsome and naturally charismatic Arch Manning figures to be stratospheric.

The Manning brand already is ubiquitous, including Archie, Peyton, Eli and Cooper starring in BBQGuys and Caesars Sportsbook commercials.

“I haven’t thought about it yet,” Arch said.

Why not?

“Because I’m just worried about playing football right now,” he said. “My dad’s been dealing with that. I committed to play football and be a student, so that’s what I’m going to Texas to do.”

His immediate focus is helping Newman win that elusive state football title while helping Texas solidify its recruiting class.

“I think players have recognized that, ‘Hey, we have a chance to do something that hasn’t been done in a while,’ " Cooper said. “Coming into a new conference. A new coach. A sleeping giant, if you will. It’s too good of a program, too much history, too great of a school not to be in a lot of conversations.”

Father said he cautioned son about the challenge Texas presents, especially as Sarkisian and staff attempt to build the program, though last Saturday’s last-second loss to No. 1 Alabama was a hopeful sign.

“And he said, ‘That’s why I want to do it,’ " Cooper said, adding, “It’s not for everybody. There are easier places to plug in and play. Machines, if you will. He wants to blaze his own trail.”

The combined trails of his grandfather and uncles includes 47 NFL seasons, four Super Bowl wins, three Super Bowl MVPs, five league MVP awards, two NFL Man of the Year awards and 20 Pro Bowls.

It includes Archie being the No. 2 pick of the 1971 NFL draft and Peyton and Eli being selected No. 1 overall, in 1998 and 2004.

It remains to be seen what kind of college career Arch will have, never mind the NFL. But what already seems clear is he views his family legacy as inspiration, not a burden. Conversely, his father’s experience is a vivid reminder that there are no certainties in sports.

“I think he’s very aware of how hard Peyton and Eli worked, the serious commitment it takes,” Cooper said. “I have no doubt that he will not slack off in that department. They’ve set the tone.

“I don’t know if Arch will be very good, or how his career will go, but I know he’ll give his all and no one will say he wasn’t studying and working hard. I feel very confident in that.

“Maybe some people are good enough to kind of show up and do it, but Mannings aren’t. We’ve got to work.”

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