Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s the Intel. This rep shares a collection of images from 5-star QB Arch Manning in New Orleans. He ranks as the nation’s No. 1 QB and the No. 1 overall prospect for 2023 on the 247Sports Composite ratings.
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NEW ORLEANS, La. -- There’s an unmistakable section of the sidewalk by the football field at Isidore Newman School.
That campus is a unique locale in every right. The private, non-denominational school is only about 3.5 miles away from the famed Superdome in The Crescent City.
It sits on 11 very tight acres. The cemetery on one side of the school offers a striking visual. The tips of some of the monuments are easily seen from every spot on the football field.
But that sidewalk on the other side of the school also commands attention. If one does not see to a certain section, they will trip. Or just crash into it like a noob on their first Talladega turn.
That sidewalk sits underneath a giant tree that has to be at least 80 years old, if not a lot older than that.
The root system underneath has pushed the sidewalk at least a foot off the ground. There is a lot at work going on there, but the walkway has yet to buckle or crack in half.
It has been like that forever, I’m told. Maybe since the 1990s when Cooper Manning and then his brothers Peyton and Eli starred for Newman.
That sidewalk is at least a 2-star parallel to the old-school recruiting of the next Manning prodigy at quarterback for Newman. That would be Arch Manning.
He is the son of Cooper. Cooper, as all the stories go, was the best athlete of Archie Manning’s three boys. He was also a quarterback up until his sophomore year but took to wide receiver to get on the field faster.
Arch told me this week his father was the one who taught him how to throw a football. Cooper knew what he was doing there.
Cooper was an All-State wideout for Newman. He was the first 1,000-yard receiver in Newman history in 1991. When Odell Beckham Jr. cracked the 1,000-yard mark in 2010, he joined Cooper as the only players in Newman’s history to accomplish that feat.
When Cooper was set to go play at Ole Miss, he was told the summer before his freshman year he had spinal stenosis and couldn’t play anymore. That chapter of the Manning football story is not known to many, but it somehow just feels right to see Arch’s progression in the game heading into his senior season.
Arch was, obviously, named after his grandfather. The SEC legend who set the roots for this football family. The Newman senior is ranked as the nation’s No. 1 football prospect in the class of 2023.
As far as that sidewalk goes, there’s a lot going on underneath the surface there. A lot of complexities, but on the street level, nothing has really changed over the years. Newman coach Nelson Stewart played with the Mannings in high school. He has said the family wants Arch’s recruitment to mirror what that process would look like some 20 or 30 years ago. Or at least try to shape it that way as much as possible.
That sidewalk brings to mind this 5-star’s recruitment, which might very well be won by an Alabama or a Texas or a Georgia. Or a wild card. It has also raised Isidore Newman up on a national pedestal yet again.
It brings to mind a line from Henry David Thoreau.
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
That’s what comes to my mind there, but this is a college football recruiting blog.
Not English Lit. Joe and Jane Reader probably prefer less Thoreau in this space. More about how young Manning can throw.
We will certainly do that here.
DawgNation has captured several images of Manning at work. Check out some of the many up above and below.
Too bad the photographer left New Orleans without taking a single picture of that sidewalk.
We do apologize for that omission. It is there. Take our word for it on that one.
RELATED: The 30-something things you learn from watching Arch Manning practice this week
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on DawgNation.com)
- Arch Manning: The 30-something things learned from watching the nation’s No. 1 prospect practice
- James Smith: The nation’s No. 2 DL talks up Georgia, Alabama among his top 11
- Jayden Wayne: 5-star DL has scheduled his first official visit with UGA
- Caleb Downs: “Special” 5-star safety is the top prospect in Georgia this cycle
- CJ Allen: Elite in-state LB plans sets commitment date, sets decision-mapping officials
- Hykeem Williams on UGA: “Every time I go it gets better”
- Georgia team captain Jamaree Salyer finally picked in the sixth round by the Los Angeles Chargers
- Nakobe Dean: Georgia’s brilliant LB finally hears his name called by the Philadelphia Eagles
- Jamaree Salyer: The championship round to the 2022 NFL Draft
- Nakobe Dean: Georgia’s ultimate achiever readies for NFL career climb
- Jamaal Jarrett: Priority DT target breaks down his final five schools
- Devonte Wyatt: The “Let me have him” story on the first-round NFL Draft prospect
- 5-star ATH Samuel M’Pemba shares glowing review of first UGA trip will be back
- The 25 most important Georgia football recruits of the Kirby Smart era: Nos. 21-25
- Arch Manning: What makes him the man beyond that famous Manning name
