Cooper Manning offers advice to parents of five-star prospects, reveals lessons learned

In one of the seemingly rare instances of a player being patient at the quarterback position in the transfer portal era, Arch Manning is set to take over the Texas offense next fall.

He’ll do so with a world of expectation, even for a player who has played minimally in his first two years on campus.

Listen to his father, Cooper Manning, though, and you quickly start to get the sense that Manning is in it for the long haul. He’s not into making a quick buck off NIL, knowing the payout could be much larger if he develops to his full potential.

Manning joined The Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday and discussed what he would tell other parents of five-star recruits who are navigating the process.

“I wouldn’t let a short-term dollar amount dictate a career,” Manning said.

That’s the short version.

“I think the best advice I can give is to look at the school, where you’re going to go and where you’re going to be happy,” Manning said. “If money is dictating where you’re going to go for the next four years, you’re probably going to make a mistake.”

In the case of Arch Manning, being somewhere he’s comfortable at has made it easier to bide his time waiting in the wings behind Quinn Ewers. He’s also gotten further evidence he made a solid choice, with Texas reaching the College Football Playoff semifinals twice in a row.

The advice from his father, Cooper Manning, was more about what to envision when things aren’t going well. When everything is breaking the wrong way, which place will set you up best to bounce back.

“I always tell Arch, where are you going to be on Sunday nights when you’ve thrown three interceptions, you’ve gotten beat by the cross-town rivalry, your girlfriend broke up with you, you’ve got two tests you haven’t studied for, it’s cloudy and you’re homesick?” Manning said. “Where are you still going to be relatively happy? And if you can figure that out you made the right choice.”

That’s not to say there aren’t some opportunities in the NIL space that are absolutely worth jumping on. For some players, the prospect of life-changing money can’t be ignored.

Arch Manning had a bit of a luxury there, given his family’s status.

But Cooper Manning still urges families with top-notch recruits to tread carefully in the NIL era.

“Slowly and carefully. I mean I think you’re, again, I think it depends,” Manning said. “Everybody’s in a different situation, certainly, but I think to play the long game is probably the best way to do it. You don’t want to get caught up in these short-term things that if you start having some success could cannibalize you doing something bigger. No, you did a little dinky deal here that’s going to hurt you from doing something bigger. I would just pick your spots carefully and worry about the craft.

“The reason you’re there is to get an education and play football and have a great college experience, it’s not all about how much money you can jam in your pocket those couple years. Again, I look at college a little differently than everybody else does sometimes. It’s such a precious time in molding who you’re going to become, and if it’s just a straight dollar decision then I think you miss out on a lot.”