Arch Manning, Peyton and Eli’s nephew, growing into big-time recruit

Arch Manning just had a growth spurt and college football better be ready.

Look out, college football. There’s a new sheriff in town.

Okay, not yet and not really, but hear me out. Just when you thought The Manning Family was done throwing spirals on a football field, think again. The first of the third generation of pro-style quarterbacks is arriving and he just had a growth spurt. Behold! Arch Manning, the rising sensational sophomore of the Isadore Newman Greenies!

Over the summer, Arch, Cooper Manning’s son, grew two inches and added 25 pounds to his frame, according to The Athletic’s Jeff Duncan. Manning went from 6-foot-1 and 165 pounds to 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds. The offers better be coming out the wazoo in the next few months. But we all know he’s destined to play in the SEC for either Ole Miss or Tennessee. Where will the next Manning commit to in a few years?

Arch could do what his uncle Eli Manning or his grandfather Archie Manning did and suit up for the Ole Miss Rebels. Or Arch could go to Rocky Top to play for the Tennessee Volunteers like his uncle Peyton Manning did. Jeremy Pruitt would love that. Or maybe he’ll stick in Louisiana and play for the LSU Tigers and try to break all of Joe Burrow’s records. He’ll have a number of options.

Arch Manning is next up when it comes to football’s royal family.

Last fall, Archie told USA Today, when comparing Arch to his uncles Peyton and Eli, “He’s probably a little ahead of them as a freshman.” This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise as Manning said his eldest son Cooper, Arch’s father, was the best athlete of his three boys. Cooper was a great high school wide receiver before spinal stenosis ended his promising player career prematurely.

It’s also not surprising because seven-on-seven camps have become the norm in high school football. The youngest Manning’s high school football experience in the 2020s will be vastly different than his father and uncles in the 1990s in New Orleans and extraordinarily different than his college football legend grandfather’s in the 1960s in rural Mississippi.

On the Mannings’ decision to not let Arch be on social media as a freshman to showcase his impressive football talent, Archie said, “Our theme is, ‘Let’s let Arch be a freshman.'”

He would follow up that comment a year ago with this, “he is playing good, he’s on a good team, they’re having a lot of success and having a lot of fun and that’s the way it should be. That’s the one thing I always told my kids and I’ll tell Arch the day before a game. ‘Go have fun.'”

Arch Manning may be having fun these days playing at the same school his dad and uncles did, but he’s about to become a superstar recruit for the 2023 class. Top programs in the southeast like Alabama, Clemson, Florida, Georgia and LSU will all want him. What we don’t know is where he’ll end up. Is it Hotty Toddy down in Oxford, Rocky Top up in Knoxville or somewhere else entirely?

There is a new Manning on the horizon. Let’s keep an eye on how the next football-playing Manning progresses in high school.

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