5-Star QB Arch Manning takes surprise visit to Virginia

A bit of surprising news came about concerning the elite five-star Isidore Newman quarterback recruit and Texas football target Arch Manning entering the weekend. It was reported on this day that Arch will be taking an abrupt visit with the Virginia Cavaliers in Charlottesville this weekend.

Multiple sources (including On3) reported that Manning would be taking a visit to Virginia actually on April 8. Since essentially everyone was not in the know about this matter just 24 hours ago, this is a bit abrupt and surprising news for Longhorns fans heading into the weekend.

There are some relevant connections of note here between Manning and the Cavs as we talk about his visit to Charlottesville.

First and foremost, Manning has a lot of family ties in terms of graduates from the University of Virginia. His mom, Ellen Manning, is an alum of UVA. Peyton Manning’s wife, Ashley (Arch’s aunt), also graduated from UVA.

Texas football 5-Star QB target Arch Manning visits UVA this weekend

Peyton has some close ties himself to the University of Virginia as he gave a commencement speech there nearly a decade ago.

Even Arch’s sister, May, is a student at the University of Virginia right now.

Given all these connections to the university, it’s easy to see how an abrupt visit like this could take place. It’s hard to tell exactly what all this means in terms of Virginia potentially entering the race among the known top schools in the Manning sweepstakes.

But you can’t go without at least talking about this given how much priority head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns are placing on this recruitment.

We’ll continue to monitor the connection between Virginia and Manning’s camp as this storyline continues to develop this weekend. For now, though, it’s worth watching the type of impression new Virginia head coach and former Clemson Tigers offensive coordinator Tony Elliott is able to make on Arch this weekend.

Before this news regarding Arch’s visit to Virginia dropped on April 8, it was presumed that the top three schools in the mix to land his commitment at this point were the Georgia Bulldogs, Texas, and Alabama Crimson Tide. We would presume that to remain the case for the time being.