How Cooper Manning Helped Arch Make Texas Longhorns Decision

Star Longhorns recruit Arch Manning's father Cooper revealed how he helped his son make his college choice
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The race for star 2023 quarterback recruit Arch Manning, or Arch Madness as it became affectionately known, came to an end in June, with the NFL legacy making his commitment to the Texas Longhorns

Unsurprisingly, it became one of, if not the biggest recruiting story in recent memory. 

In fact, the entire process was arguably the most scrutinized recruitment in the history of the sport.

Luckily for Manning, he comes from a family that is used to being on the media mountaintop. And alongside his uncles, Eli and Peyton, and his grandfather Archie, Arch's grandfather Cooper helped guide him through his decision.

However, according to Cooper in a recent interview on The Dan Patrick Show, Arch came into the situation knowing exactly what he wanted. 

“I really took the role of just being kind of the concierge,” he said. “So a little bit of a nag, probably if anything, let’s take a look at this stuff. But he was a little more mature, I mean all teenagers are immature, but he was a little more mature in what he liked, and what he didn’t like. I liked some stuff that he didn’t like, and vice versa. It was his decision the whole way and I was proud of the way he handled the whole thing.”

Not only was the elder Manning very complimentary of his son's maturity through the entire process, but was also quite impressed with the way he handled the spotlight. 

“He didn’t want any limelight on him, he wanted to stay out of the social media stuff and he didn’t want to draw any attention to himself,” Cooper said. “He is still kind of wired that way. ‘I want to play ball and enjoy it, but I don’t want to be getting more attention than I deserve.’”

Now set to enroll at Texas in January, the Longhorns quarterback of the future will have to learn how to handle a different kind of limelight - the one that comes along with being the starting quarterback at the University of Texas... arguably one of the most scrutinized jobs in College Football.


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Matt Galatzan
MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.