LSU Football: Why the Tigers should be a threat to land Arch Manning

LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron recently visited 2023 quarterback Arch Manning.

LSU football head Ed Orgeron didn’t celebrate the Tigers’ national championship win against Clemson for too long.

The Eddie Robinson coach of the year was back on the recruiting trail on Tuesday and he made sure to check in on 2023 quarterback Arch Manning in New Orleans.

Manning, of course, is the son of former Ole Miss wide receiver Cooper Manning, and the nephew of Eli and Peyton Manning (and the grandson of Archie Manning).

Unsurprisingly, Manning is already generating a ton of buzz. He was recently named the MaxPreps National Freshman Player of the Year.

And Rivals had some incredibly positive things to say about Manning this past summer (before he had even played a high school game!).

"Manning has some room to continue to grow and continue to develop. It’s notable, however, how advanced he is at at this early stage. The next Manning flashes incredible potential rarely seen in a prospect this young."

A lot of folks have assumed that Manning is bound for Ole Miss, where his father, grandfather and uncle (Eli) played.

But I wouldn’t be so quick to make that assumption.

The Manning family is big on high school kids making their own decisions when it comes to their athletic future.

Peyton Manning, for example, eschewed Ole Miss in favor of Tennessee. He wanted to make his own name for himself.

I could see Arch doing the same thing with his recruitment. If he goes to Ole Miss, he’ll constantly be compared to his grandfather, father and uncle. He’ll always be “Cooper’s kid” or “Eli’s nephew” (those designations will likely always follow him, but they’d be especially prevalent at Ole Miss).

The same thing could be said about him attending Tennessee (his jersey might as well say “Peyton’s nephew” if he heads to Knoxville).

But at LSU, Arch could make his own way. And he could do it close to a city where his family now has deep roots (the Mannings have been in New Orleans, for the most part, for nearly 50 years).

There’s obviously a long way to go until Arch makes a decision on where he’ll play in college, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Tigers become a major factor for the dynamic young quarterback.