Texas Longhorns QB Arch Manning Considered Two Other SEC Teams

In his recruiting cycle, Arch Manning was the name circled on every major program's list. A five-star quarterback with an attention-grabbing last name and a high-ceiling skill-wise, the Texas Longhorns seemingly won the quarterback lottery when Manning chose to head to the Forty Acres.

Running into Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart at SEC Media Days, Manning remembered a pair of programs he nearly committed to over Texas.

"It's funny, I actually just ran into coach Smart running out of the bathroom, it was weird seeing him since recruiting," Manning said, according to Dawgs Central. "I was kind of down to the wire between Georgia, [Texas] and Alabama. They got really good players and excited to play them again at their place."

How Manning's Decision Impacted the Recruiting Cycle

Alabama, Georgia and Texas finished as the top three recruiting classes in 2023, the year of Manning's cycle, according to 247Sports recruiting class rankings. The Crimson Tide claimed the top spot, the Bulldogs the second and the Longhorns the third.

Though the two SEC rivals found themselves ahead of Texas in those rankings, neither program recruited a quarterback as highly-regarded as Manning was as a recruit. Who knows what the college football world may have looked like if Manning decided Crimson red or Bulldog black looked better than the burnt orange he wears today?

Manning is just one of a couple of instances in which the Longhorns took away a five-star recruit from Georgia, the most recent examples occurring twice in the past week. On Tuesday, Texas took not one, but two commitments away from the Bulldogs, securing top linebacker prospect Tyler Atkinson, the No. 1 linebacker in the 2026 class, and flipping former Georgia commit and five-star defensive lineman James "JJ" Johnson.

Atkinson had narrowed his decision down to four schools, Georgia, Texas, Oregon and Clemson before choosing the Longhorns over the rest of the field. Johnson, the No. 1 defensive lineman in the 2026 class according to On3, originally committed to the Bulldogs on June 28. He then decommitted from Georgia on Tuesday and announced his decision to go to Texas on the same day.

A similar event occurred last recruiting cycle as well when five-star defensive lineman Justus Terry, a Georgia native, had decommitted from the Bulldogs, only to later join the Longhorns. Part of the No. 1 recruiting class with the Longhorns last season, Terry is getting set for his first season at Texas this fall.

Though the sport may never know what a Manning in a Georgia or Alabama jersey may have looked like, Texas fans are certainly happy that, for the time being, they don't have to think about it.