Oklahoma’s staff is across the country in various places looking for future members of the Crimson & Cream. While they are doing that, the entire college football world reacts to one of recruiting’s biggest recruiting storylines of the last several years as number one prospect in the class of 2023, quarterback Arch Manning, committed to the University of Texas to play college football.
The college football universe was shocked as the commitment came with little fanfare. No flashy well shot cinematic video, no super vibrant graphic. Instead, just a plain old tweet announcing his commitment to Texas. This news would maybe reverbate a little differently if the Sooners hadn’t secured their 2023 quarterback months ago in five-star talent Jackson Arnold.
Oklahoma was in on the Manning sweepstakes years ago when Lincoln Riley was the head man in charge. Ultimately, at the time, Riley found his guy in consensus top five recruit Malachi Nelson, who was a Sooners commit this time last year before following Riley to USC.
The Sooners hired Brent Venables and he hired Jeff Lebby to run his offense and after a month on the job, Lebby secured his QB of the future in Arnold. Lebby spent time recruiting Arnold prior to taking the OU job.
Arnold is a tremendous talent in his own right and shortly after receiving an Oklahoma offer pulled the trigger and became the leader for Oklahoma’s 2023 class. He threw for a shade under 4,000 passing yards and threw 34 passing touchdowns to just five interceptions. He also ran 208 times for 659 yards and 12 touchdowns. All of these numbers came against 6A Texas competition which is top tier competition that only few states can rival.
Arnold won’t arrive until next year but he and Arch Manning could share the field in the Cotton Bowl multiple times over the next three or four years.
On the outside, the recruiting world will naturally assume Manning is a tier above but we’ll never know until these two young stars suit up and play for their respective sides. While fans of the burnt orange rejoice (with good reason), Oklahoma must continue to build and surround their own five-star QB with the talent. So that when these two grace the field on that October Saturday in Dallas, the quarterback from the state of Texas that picked Oklahoma shines brightest.
Oklahoma’s found their guy in Jackson Arnold and the Longhorns have theirs in Arch Manning. For right now, both represent the futures of these programs as they head into new eras under new leadership. Only time will tell who comes out on top wearing that iconic Golden Hat.
[listicle id=64937]
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.