How Arch Manning unknowingly helped the Tennessee Vols in a big way

Texas Longhorns redshirt freshman quarterback Arch Manning doesn't have a connection to the Tennessee Vols outside of the fact that he's the nephew of Peyton Manning. 

The New Orleans native, however, unknowingly provided an assist to the Vols during the 2023 recruiting cycle. 

Vols head coach Josh Heupel, who was hired to replace Jeremy Pruitt after the 2020 season, won his first big recruiting battle at Tennessee in early 2022 when five-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava committed to the Volunteers. 

Iamaleava was one of the most sought-after quarterbacks in the 2023 recruiting class. But most of the top programs -- such as Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, and Texas -- had Manning higher on their recruiting board. 

Despite Manning's status as Peyton's nephew, the Vols never got seriously involved with Arch's recruitment. He received an offer from Heupel and his staff, but that was as far as the interest went. 

Instead of strongly pursuing Manning, Tennessee went all in on Iamaleava. 

So while Alabama, Georgia, and Texas, among others, were in a fierce battle for Manning, the Vols were quietly building a solid relationship with Iamaleava.

Iamaleava committed to Tennessee in March, 2022. Manning, meanwhile, didn't announce his commitment until later that summer (in late June). If Manning had announced his commitment to Texas before Iamaleava committed to Tennessee, then it would've given Alabama and the other programs who were pursuing Manning a chance to make up some ground with Nico. 

Of course, Iamaleava probably would've still committed to the Vols at that point. But that's in large part because of the relationship that Heupel and his staff built with Iamaleava while seemingly every other major program in the nation was enamored with Manning. 

Arch Manning was essentially a distraction to the programs that would've been Tennessee's biggest competition for Nico Iamaleava. 

I'm not saying Arch is the reason that Tennessee landed Nico -- it's probably not even one of the top five reasons why the Vols won the recruiting battle for Iamaleava -- but it certainly helped make landing the California native a lot easier for Heupel and company.