'You gotta impress these people' - Cooper Manning candidly reveals the way he was a 'nag' during Arch Manning's recruitment

Cooper Manning, Arch's father, appeared on the Retire Southern podcast earlier this year and offered some rare insight into his son's enigmatic recruitment. 

"Unfortunately in recruiting, they want to start getting in front of you at an earlier age...it's early," explained Cooper. "So I just thought it was a good idea to go see as many places as you can right now. That means you're going and taking trips when [Arch] probably would rather be staying home with his buddies and hanging out and watching football at someone's house. And I said, 'No, we gotta go see some places'. So I probably was a little bit of a nag, but more of a concierge, like, 'We gotta go here at this time'. And so we kind of made it a family deal....and we all just said, let's go. Let's go see Clemson. Let's go see what Athens is like for a football game, and Tuscaloosa. Let's go to Ole Miss, and go up to LSU, and go see what Austin is like.

"And where you (Arch) as a 16 year old or 17 year old can learn to find out what you even like. Because you don't even have taste yet. And things I liked, he didn't like and vice versa. So we made it fun. But at the same time, they like to take you out. And then you have the early morning stuff and they're kind of seeing whether you'll get up. And I'm like, 'Arch get up, you gotta impress these people'. And he's like, 'I'm tired', you know, like every 16 year old."

It’s fun to get a peek behind the curtain at Arch’s recruiting process from the family side of things — and to see that it wasn’t a diva-like experience, unlike what you often see with many high-profile high school players these days. 

Not only did Cooper not expect Arch to receive any sort of special treatment from programs or coaches, but he also treated Arch like an average 16 year old high school student.

Cooper may come from one of the most influential families in sports, but he feels like a guy that every parent of an athlete can relate to -- you know, minus the once in a lifetime genes.