In retrospect, college football fans might find it a touch curious that Arch Manning, a highly sought-after high school recruit with a championship pedigree, committed to Texas when he did.
For a guy with no shortage of options, and a three-school short list that also included Alabama and Georgia, why pick the program that, at the time, finished their most recent season 5-7?
Well, as it turns out, Manning's decision had much to do with the experience of his father, Cooper, who was forced to retire from football entirely after he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis during his time at Ole Miss.
“Cooper had him in a very good frame of mind,” said Archie Manning, Arch's grandfather and Cooper's father. "Which was, 'Let’s find a school that you want to go to if something happens and you don’t play football.'"
The Manning patriarch's comments were included in S. C. Gwynne's recent and wide-ranging Arch Manning profile for Texas Monthly, in which the quarterback's father, uncles and grandfather offer up quite a bit of insight into the family life, upbringing and decision-making that make Arch who he is.
“Go to a place where you will be happy,” Cooper said he advised his son, per Gwynee, “to a place where if you didn’t play a down, you would still enjoy your college experience. Have a little bit of balance. Have friends who aren’t just on the team, friends who are in fraternities and clubs.”
And that seems to be exactly what Arch did. With the help of his younger brother Heid, who also attends UT, he has friends in non-athletic circles, and has also insisted he will not stop doing "normal" things just because of his newfound superstar status.
In other words, Texas was that "happy" place for him, so he made it happen.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Arch Manning Picked Texas With the Help of Some Sage Advice From Dad Cooper.
