With Arch Next in Line, Uncles Peyton and Eli Manning Always There for Advice
Eli Manning watched as his brother Peyton visited multiple schools over the course of a year and received hundreds of letters from interested programs. He took one look at all of the attention Peyton's recruitment attracted and wanted nothing of it.
He wanted to keep his recruitment lowkey and focus on the schools that stood out to him most.
"I just had 10 schools where I was sort of interested from the get go and if a coach called me from one of those other schools, I didn't want to waste his time or my time," Eli Manning said. "I just wanted to focus on the schools I was interested in."
But even Peyton and Eli's recruitment didn't reach the level of public interest than that of nephew Arch, who enters his junior season at Newman as the most recognizable face in high school football recruiting. Already sporting the cover of Sports Illustrated and attracting national headlines seemingly every month, Arch is keeping an open mind through his recruitment thus far.
Having visited the likes of Clemson, Georgia, Texas, Alabama and LSU this month, his recruitment will continue to be among the most closely followed in recent memory. And having two Super Bowl champion uncles to bounce ideas off is certainly a nice luxary to have as well.
Eli has yet to see Arch play in person but watches and streams the games online when he can. On the other hand, Peyton has seen Arch play a few times over the course of his high school career and has been seen giving plenty of advice and instruction to his nephew throughout the years.
He even had Arch come stay with him in Denver for a short stint and was able to give him some great instruction about the quarterback position according to Cooper Manning.
"You like to know what's going on and what school's he wants to visit so it comes up," Eli said. "I'm not super involved and not giving too much advice. I think it's a super exciting time to really just enjoy being a high school football player and not really think about where he's going to play next.
"He's got two more years of high school and I know he wants to go win a high school state championship and I would just encourage him to focus on playing high school football, be a great teammate, work on his skills and go out there and try as win as many games as possible. Enjoy that high school experience because it is special."
Grandfather Archie Manning, who Arch is named after, understands the attention will come as he's the third generation of the quarterback family. At the same time, his message has always been simple to his grandson, just have fun.
"It's fun, Arch has got a good approach, I don't worry about Arch but I don't want people to expect too much," Archie said. "He's getting attention, he's not asking for that but it comes with it and he's handled it very well. The only thing I ever tell Arch is to have fun and I think he is. He's a good teammate, loves the game."
