Five-Star Plus+ QB Arch Manning visiting Virginia

New Orleans (La.) Isidore Newman quarterback Arch Manning has been focused on a handful of schools in his recruitment, mainly Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss, Florida and LSU.

But the country’s No. 1 overall prospect in the 2023 class made a surprise visit on Friday to the University of Virginia, according to a report from 247Sports confirmed by On3. According to a source, Manning met with head coach Tony Elliott and attending meetings. Manning’s sister, May, is also a student at UVA.

The trip comes after a trio of visits in the last month to Georgia, Alabama and Texas, which are seen by industry sources as the three legitimate contenders to land Manning.

According to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM), it’s a neck-and-neck race between those three for his services. The RPM favors the Crimson Tide slightly (34.9%), but both the Longhorns (30.7%) and Bulldogs (28.7%) are right in the hunt.

Arch Manning’s top group clearly is Bama, UGA, Texas

If you’ve been following Arch Manning’s recruitment at all, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that multiple insiders and college sources agree that the Texas Longhorns, Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide are the teams to beat.

“I would say it’s 33%, 33% and 33%,” one coaching contact close to Manning’s recruitment said. “We’ve got as good of a shot as anybody.”

Added another source: “There has been no eliminating of teams. There’s been no ‘This is my top six, top five, four, three, two or one.’ There are no top schools. No one has been eliminated. But it’s becoming clear that Georgia, Texas and Alabama – the three schools he just returned to again – are the schools he’s mulling over. And he’s expected to eventually choose from one of these three schools.”

A separate insider told On3 you can see that Texas, Georgia and Alabama are on top because of how they’ve approached other quarterback targets.

“It’s a telling sign that Texas, Georgia and Alabama don’t have another quarterback commitment,” that source said. “They’re all obviously still in the race for Manning. We could get some hints on where things are going with Manning’s recruitment if one of those three schools takes a quarterback commitment from somebody else. But for now, all three schools like where they stand with him.”

One possible connection to Virginia’s football program is head coach Tony Elliott, who was part of the Clemson staff that was recruiting Manning last year before the Tigers were unofficially eliminated from his recruitment. Arch Manning’s mom and aunt both attender Virginia for college as well.