Texas should be encouraged by Arch Manning’s ‘pretty short’ Bama visit

The ongoing saga regarding “Arch Madness” continues to dominate the headlines for Texas football recruiting, among other top contenders, in the running for the elite Louisiana native quarterback. Five-star Isidore Newman quarterback recruit Arch Manning is the talk of the town on the Forty Acres following his visit to Austin a little more than one week ago.

Second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian, quarterbacks coach AJ Milwee, and the Longhorns hosted Manning for a visit in Austin on the final weekend of the month of March. Manning visited Austin for multiple days a couple of weeks ago. And all indications point to Texas hosting a really successful visit with Arch for that weekend.

Moreover, Arch’s visit to Texas back on the weekend of March 24 came in a string of important spring trips for his camp. Arch also visited the Georgia Bulldogs the weekend before he tripped to Austin.

And last weekend, Arch visited with legendary head coach Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide. But according to a report from Inside Texas last weekend (part of the On3 Network, paid content), Manning had a “pretty short” visit with the Crimson Tide, at least by his usual considerations.

Texas football fans should be happy about a possible “short” visit for 5-Star QB Arch Manning to Alabama last weekend

Manning visited both Texas and Georgia for a longer period of time than he did Alabama. And the tone for Manning coming out of both of those weekend visits with Texas and Georgia seemed to be more positive than coming out of the Alabama visit last weekend.

It’s easy to see why Texas fans have a good amount of optimism coming away from Arch’s first visit to Austin of 2022. And the Longhorns faithful have even more reason to be optimistic about Texas’ standing in the recruitment of Arch following his weekend visit to Tuscaloosa.

Texas looks to be in a great spot right now in the race to land a commitment from Arch. And with the possibility in place that Texas and Georgia could each get a second visit from Manning this spring, there’s an opportunity for these two schools to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.

Yet, it’s important to still take this string of early-spring weekend visits for Arch in context. If he’s planning on taking his recruitment process slow this offseason, then Alabama still likely has plenty of time to make up ground in the race to land his commitment.

On the other hand, though, if Texas and Georgia can help speed up Arch’s recruiting timeline by locking in another couple of spring visits, you have to like where each school stands with him. It will be crucial to see how the rest of the spring visit calendar shapes up for Arch.

Expect Arch to schedule at least another few visits this spring to some of the top contenders in the race to land his commitment. Texas and Georgia are two likely schools to get another visit from Arch as are the likes of the Ole Miss Rebels and LSU Tigers.