He’s not Peyton Manning’s son, and his profile as a quarterback is much closer to his grandfather than either Peyton or Eli, but Arch Manning is clearly built more like Peyton than anybody else given his decision to commit to the Texas Longhorns. It’s similar to how Tennessee football got his uncle to attend Rocky Top over a quarter-century earlier.
As a result, Peyton Manning speaking on Arch carried more weight. This past weekend at the Manning Passing Academy, he and Eli spoke with WWL Sports in New Orleans, and then Peyton spoke alone in another video posted on Twitter by Christ Gordy of Sports Talk 790 in Houston.
Peyton’s comments were intriguing. He first talked about how he was down to Steve Spurrier and the Florida Gators, which is incredibly interesting given what came out of that matchup in the 1990s. After that, he spoke about his decision to commit to Rocky Top specifically and why it was important for Arch to make the decision when he knew.
Here’s Peyton Manning talking about his nephew Arch Manning committing to Texas. @mpa_info pic.twitter.com/WNgau1XvtB
— Chris Gordy (@ChrisGordy) June 24, 2022
What stands out to many Vol fans is Manning being down to Florida and Tennessee in 1994 and choosing the Vols. However, that’s interesting enough and speaks for itself. While his numbers would’ve been through the roof playing for Spurrier, he may not have been developed the way David Cutcliffe developed him.
However, the big standout is Manning talking about the feeling of the decision to commit and saying when you know, you know. That’s how you know his comments carry more weight, because he and Arch are the only ones who took that plunge to go elsewhere.
Archie Manning himself is connected to that since he was the architect of the family. With Peyton Manning and his nephew, Arch, though, they had to break with family tradition to carve out their own legacies elsewhere, something that had to be incredibly difficult.
This is why what Peyton says is more valuable than Eli or even Cooper. Both of those players followed in their parents’ footsteps to go to Ole Miss and keep that pipeline, and Arch had more of a case to go there than even Peyton. After all, when Peyton was committing, Ole Miss was a dumpster fire about to go on probation.
Now, though, Ole Miss is a program on the rise with an offensive genius in Lane Kiffin. Picking Texas, which just went 5-7 last year while Ole Miss went 10-3, was an incredibly gutsy move by Arch. He’s not just trying to carve out his own legacy. Saving a program is his goal.
Still, what he did connects with Peyton Manning more than anybody else, and that’s why what he said is most important. Not committing to an SEC school was another break of the mold by Arch, as he’ll likely be starting before Texas joins. The one tradition he hopes to keep alive, though, is owning the Alabama Crimson Tide like the rest of the family.