Clemson football: 5-star Arch Manning’s recruitment reminds us of Trevor Lawrence

The Clemson football program hasn’t officially offered a quarterback in the 2023 class, but we all know who one of the first offers will be: 5-star Arch Manning.

Manning, the nephew of Peyton & Eli Manning, is considered the No. 1 overall quarterback in the nation for the 2023 class and for good reason. He has shown the ability to play the position at a high level since he first began high school- and even before that- and there’s no doubt that the future is bright for him no matter what avenue he elects to take.

Manning has set up several visits for the month of June and his first stop will be to Clemson. He will also take visits to SMU, Texas, Georgia and Alabama.

Manning’s high school coach Nelson Stewart spoke with The Clemson Insider recently and had this to say about his recruitment:

"“I know this, he’s not in any hurry to do it,” Stewart said. “I think when he knows, he’ll know. It’s going to be a real authentic decision that I think will have a lot of thought into it but will be a natural fit. And I think in the end, it’s really going to be about the fit, the relationships, the trust and really just what’s best for him in his journey.”"

Arch Manning’s recruitment should remind Clemson football fans a lot of Trevor Lawrence

If you remember Trevor Lawrence’s recruitment, you should know that he was very careful about releasing information and that there was a legitimate ‘feeling out’ process as he went through his recruitment.

Lawrence didn’t make any decision over night, but carefully thought through all of his options and came to the conclusion that the Clemson football program was the best place for him. That announcement happened in December of 2016.

So far, we are hearing a lot of the same sentiments from Manning’s camp.

He’s not in a rush to make a decision. He doesn’t have a timeline this early in the process. Instead, he’s ‘feeling out’ his suitors and looking at everything through a microscope.

It’s not just how careful Manning has been thus far, but it’s also the way he handles himself. No recruit had received the hype of Trevor Lawrence in quite a while and Lawrence was poised and shined bright in the spotlight.

Now, as we look ahead to this 2023 recruiting cycle, Manning is getting the same kind of hype and it doesn’t seem to be bothering him one bit.

This is a high-character guy with a ton of talent and potential. While he might not end up coming to the same result as Trevor Lawrence, the comparison of the two recruitments almost looks identical at this point.