Texas emerging as top school for 5-Star QB Arch Manning?

Through the first few months of this calendar year, second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff continued to make it clear that the top target of the 2023 Texas football recruiting class is the elite five-star Isidore Newman quarterback Arch Manning. As the lone remaining uncommitted quarterback for this recruiting cycle that holds a Texas offer, Sark and his staff are clearly putting all their eggs in one basket at this position with Manning for their 2023 class.

And that might not be the worst thing to do.

It seems like whatever Sark and the Longhorns staff are doing with Manning throughout his recruitment thus far is really working. Texas is hanging around in the midst of a group of top schools in the race to land a commitment from Manning, most of which have other connections or pitches they can throw his way that you would figure the Longhorns couldn’t compete with.

That is obviously not the case in this situation as Texas is hanging around with the likes of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, LSU Tigers, Ole Miss Rebels, etc., among the top schools in this battle for Manning.

Moreover, it’s not only looking like Texas is hanging around among the top schools for Manning. It’s starting to look like Sark and the Longhorns could be emerging as a potential frontrunner in the Manning sweepstakes.

Texas football emerging as the leader for 5-Star QB Arch Manning this spring?

Now, before getting into some of this discussion going on lately about Texas potentially emerging as the frontrunner for Manning, there are a few stipulations to take into account.

First and foremost, most of the discussion surrounding Manning still largely comes from informed speculation about what we’re hearing on the recruiting trail from various rumors and reports in the last month or so. There is enough discussion going on right now that we have to at least talk about what’s going on between Manning and the Longhorns.

Secondly, knowing how Manning tends to keep busy between his high school football and basketball seasons, it looks like this point of his recruitment will resume the process of him taking visits. That is going to generate more discussion regarding the schools that have the most momentum with him on the recruiting trail heading into the spring with him resuming the process of talking to his top options.

With Manning likely to take at least a few visits this spring, this looks like the opportunity for Texas to make some real headway in the recruitment of Manning for the next few months. And the fact that the Longhorns currently have the only visit scheduled with Manning for the spring just goes to show the traction his camp has with Sark and the Texas staff at the moment.

A recent report from Horns247 over the weekend (paid content) talked about how there was a real connection that Manning and the Longhorns staff had since last offseason that could separate Texas as a top school for his camp. This Horns247 report reiterated how that is helping Texas’ position with Manning heading into this round of spring ball.

It was also very notable that there was a prediction put in from Inside Texas’ Eric Nahlin last week projecting Manning’s commitment to go to Texas. The On3 recruiting prediction machine also now favors Texas to land the commitment of Manning whenever he officially announces.

All in all, it’s hard to ignore all the momentum that Texas has at the moment in the recruitment of Manning. It’s still too hard to tell if Texas can get an earlier-than-expected decision from Manning this offseason. But the leading indicators right now are showing that Texas could be starting to emerge as his top school heading into the spring.

As Manning resumes the process of him visiting schools during the spring, there will continue to be more reports and speculation that emerges concerning his recruitment and eventual commitment. It will be interesting to follow along through that process in the weeks and months ahead.