Alabama making a huge move lately with 5-Star QB Arch Manning

This is going to be a busy week on the trail for second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian and the 2023 Texas football recruiting class, especially with elite five-star Isidore Newman quarterback Arch Manning set to make his way to campus. As Texas gets spring camp up and running this week, there will also be more activity for Sark and his staff on the recruiting trail.

Sark and the Longhorns staff are set to have their first major visit weekend coming up starting on March 25 and 26. And the top target for the Longhorns that is set to be visiting campus this weekend is the Louisiana native Manning.

Texas is set to host multiple dozen key targets of their 2023 and 2024 recruiting classes in the week ahead. But Manning is going to be the most important of all the visiting prospects in the midst of the first week of spring ball on the Forty Acres.

Moreover, Texas looked to be part of a top group of schools that is anywhere between three and six deep, depending on who you ask. But the schools that seemingly have the most momentum with Manning in the last few months are the Georgia Bulldogs, Alabama Crimson Tide, and Texas.

There were some indications, though, that Sark and the Longhorns staff were starting to get a slight edge over the competition of late in the race to land a commitment from Manning. For a few weeks leading up to the start of the spring visit season, Texas was the only school that had a visit scheduled with Manning.

5-Star Texas football QB target Arch Manning finding more traction with Alabama?

But that would soon change as Georgia got a visit on the books with Manning for last weekend. By most accounts that was a successful visit for Manning in Athens to start off his spring trips.

There was also a nugget that came down from a WVUE-TV Fox 8 reporter/editor Garland Gillen on Twitter on March 21 indicating that the Crimson Tide won’t take any other quarterback commit in their 2023 class until a decision from Arch arrives.

That level of prioritization from the Crimson Tide is seemingly something that could move the needle with the Manning camp. At least that looks to be the case given some recent leading indicators from the top recruiting outlets.

The On3 recruiting prediction machine now gives Alabama the lead in terms of the percentage chances to win the Manning sweepstakes. Granted, the margins between Texas and Alabama in that regard are pretty small.

There is also now a clean split between Texas and Alabama in terms of the analyst/publisher picks in the Rivals FutureCast at this moment.

The fact that the Crimson Tide will now be willing to hold off on really prioritizing any other quarterback recruits in their 2023 class could mean a tougher battle for Sark and the Longhorns staff moving forward in the race to land a commitment from Manning.

Anytime Alabama is putting this much effort and energy in any one recruitment, it is difficult for any competitor to come out on top.

Granted, Texas looks to be sitting in a great position right now with Manning heading into his visit to Austin this weekend. If Sark and quarterbacks coach AJ Milwee play their cards right with the Manning camp this spring, they could continue to generate momentum in this recruitment.

Arch madness will continue to dominate the headlines for the Longhorns this week. That is especially the case with Georgia and Alabama continually making big pushes for the insanely highly touted Louisiana signal-caller.