FEBRUARY 2020 63
be named, call the Mannings’ method “refreshing”
in an era when 15-year-olds use social media to
advertise offers that can’t be executed for another
three years. The downside, some say, is that Arch
could fall behind. Many of the highest-profile QBs
have dozens of offers before they’re juniors, and
some commit well before their senior year begins.
“I think this approach is very interesting,” says
Aprile Benner, an associate professor at Texas
who studies adolescent behavior. “In a family like
this, the expectations are high. They’re trying to
manage those expectations, but they also come
from a place of privilege where they’re able to
do that. There’s not that pressure to support the
family like a lot of other athletes have.”
DURING THE COHEN
High game, Arch threw with such precision that a
cornerback turned to a ballboy between snaps to
get confirmation that the QB was in fact a fresh-
man. “Daaamn,” the defender replied. Seconds
later, Arch beat him on a 10-yard touchdown pass.
The hype around Arch will only rise from here.
His family’s initial plan is to ease Arch into the
world of recruiting and media this spring, a criti-
cal evaluation period for college coaches. After
Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s second
year as a high school starter, his coach in Georgia
received visits from 120 schools during the spring.
Where will Arch go? Stewart notes that his
father, grandfather and one uncle attended Ole
Miss. Another uncle went to Tennessee. LSU,
meanwhile, is just 90 minutes northwest. Four
more SEC schools are within a six-hour drive.
Arch’s arrival on any campus, of course, is a long
way off. For now, he’s the latest hotshot Newman
quarterback with manning on his jersey—though
Stewart doesn’t see him in that light. “I focus on
the first name,” the coach says. “He’s Arch.” ±
is leadership, Archie told him: “You must take
command of the huddle.”
“Pop, that ain’t going to work,” Arch replied.
“We don’t huddle.”
THERE ARE OTHER
quarterbacking legacies: the Grieses, Bob and
then Brian; the Simmses, Phil and then Chris
and Matt; the Lucks, Oliver and then Andrew.
But maybe the closest current comparison to
Arch is LeBron James’s 15-year-old son, Bronny,
a freshman guard at Sierra Canyon School in
Chatsworth, Calif., who is attracting the eyes of
college scouts. At his son’s games LeBron doesn’t
shy from the spotlight—unlike the Mannings.
“They’ve shut everything down,” says Ken
Trahan, a longtime member of the New Orleans
radio media, “but the attention is going to come.”
Even when Arch visited the Ole Miss campus as a
seventh-grader, a video of him exchanging passes
with receivers A.J.Brown and DKMetcalf—bot h
now in the NFL—made its way online, exposure
that led the family to clamp down on access.
Similarly, college coaches continue to try to find
ways around the Mannings’ recruiting embargo.
Take last summer, when Arch and his high school
team won a seven-on-seven tournament on LSU’s
campus. Tigers coach Ed Orgeron and his offen-
sive staff spent much of the event schmoozing
the Manning family. “It was unlike anything
I’ve witnessed at a seven-on-seven tournament,”
says Shea Dixon, a 247Sports recruiting reporter
covering LSU and Louisiana. “I haven’t seen LSU
coaches put that attention on a senior, let alone a
kid who just finished eighth grade.”
The Tigers planned to offer Arch a scholarship,
Dixon says, before they learned the likely reply:
There is no offer to give because there is no offer to
receive. Several college coaches, who asked not to
BILL FRAKES (PEYTON); DAVID RAE MORRIS/AP (ELI)
PEYTON
140 completions
in 230 attempts
(60.9%) for 2,142
yards and 23 TDs
ELI
139 completions
in 245 attempts
(56.7%) for 2,340
yards and 24 TDs
ARCH
204 completions
in 316 attempts
(64.5%) for 2,407
yards and 34 TDs
NEWMAN’S
OWN
THE MANNINGS’
STATS IN
THEIR FIRST
Y E A R S A S
STARTERS
