Arch Manning’s reign as the consensus No. 1 overall recruit in the Class of 2023 has come to an end.
ESPN, which updated its recruitment rankings for its ESPN 300 on Monday, bumped the five-star Isidore Newman senior quarterback down to the No. 2 overall spot behind new No. 1 Malachi Nelson.
Nelson, a pro-style quarterback out of Los Alamitos, California, is a Southern Cal commit.
Mike Farrell on Arch Manning: Recruiting expert says 5-star QB Arch Manning would be a 3-star if not for last name
No surprise Arch ended up at Texas: Explaining Arch Manning’s Texas Longhorns football commitment and why it’s no surprise
What to know about Arch Manning: What to know about Arch Manning, Texas football commit and nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning
Manning (6-foot-4, 205 pounds) remains the top overall recruit in the 2023 class in 247sports, On3 sports and Rivals’ ratings. He’s been the consensus top recruit across all national recruiting services for years.
ESPN dropping Manning, a Texas commit, from the top spot comes on the heels of former Rivals recruiting director Mike Farrell saying that Manning would be a three-star quarterback prospect if it were not for his last name. Manning is the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning, two Super Bowl winning quarterbacks.
“If his name was Arch Smith, I think he’d probably be a high three-star quarterback,” Farrell said on the Daily Wistreaming show Crain and Company two weeks ago.
Farrell went on to say that Manning hasn’t “progressed” since his freshman season of high school when he was Newman’s starting quarterback.
“When he has had to step up against other competition, especially in the playoff game where he looked awful, it just hasn’t translated,” Farrell said. “Every time I watch other quarterbacks in this class, it knocks Arch down in my head.”
Manning threw for 1,913 yards and 26 touchdowns while rushing for six scores and 381 yards during his junior campaign at Isidore Newman.
One of most widely followed recruitments in some time with offers from every big name college football program including Alabama, Georgia, LSU among others, Manning committed to Texas last month.
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers and Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU/UL athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: ESPN drops Arch Manning from top spot in 2023 recruitment rankings