Arch Manning will be a student at Texas during the upcoming spring semester.
According to The Athletic, Rivals’ No. 1 recruit in the country is set to enroll early at Texas ahead of his freshman football season. The move means that Manning will be able to participate in spring practice and get about six months more practice time with his teammates than he would if he waited until the summer.
Manning’s decision to enroll early isn’t much of a surprise. Many top quarterbacks enroll early to get a feel for their new college’s offenses. Texas’ current starting QB Quinn Ewers even skipped his senior season of high school football entirely. Ewers enrolled a whole year early at Ohio State in 2021 before he transferred to Texas at the end of last season.
Manning’s decision to enroll early will be solidified in December’s early signing period when he will officially sign with the Longhorns. Even if Manning wasn’t going to enroll early at Texas he would have likely signed with the Longhorns later this year instead of waiting until February. Many top recruits now take advantage of the early signing period because one of the benefits is the ability to enroll early after signing.
The arrival of Manning at Texas will set up an intriguing QB competition between Manning and Ewers right away. Ewers has shown flashes of greatness in his first season as a starter and is 82-of-142 for 1,139 yards and has thrown for 11 TDs and five interceptions. He missed nearly a month this season after injuring his shoulder against Alabama.
Texas currently has the No. 5 recruiting class in the country and has commitments from 20 other players in its class of 2023. Manning is the only five-star recruit in the class but 15 of the 21 players currently verbally committed to Texas are four-star recruits in Rivals’ rankings.
As the early signing period approaches, just three of the top 10 players in Rivals’ rankings have not verbally committed to a college. Samuel M’Pemba (No. 5), Nyckoles Harbor (No. 9) and Desmond Ricks (No. 10) have yet to make a non-binding verbal commitment.
