Clemson football: Chris Vizzina-Arch Manning debate

Last week our friend Jason Priester of AllClemson.com put out an interesting article on the merits of Arch Manning and Clemson football commit Chris Vizzina and which was the better quarterback.

Manning, of course, is the rated as the number one quarterback and player in the 2023 class and has committed to the University of Texas.

Let’s clear this up right away: I am not a professional evaluator of quarterbacks. Or even close. At all.

Given that, I’m not even going to attempt to detail why Manning is the top rated quarterback and Vizzina 6th, with four additional signal callers in between.

But I will say I agree with the premise  and the quote from Mike Farrell in the article:

"“If his name was Arch….. Smith, I think he’d probably be a high three-star quarterback,” Farrell said."

I’m not sure about the high three-star part, that could be attention seeking reverse hyperbole, but perhaps a five star not rated as the top player in the class, or even high-four star.

There’s no doubt that the Manning name influences his ranking, just as an Alabama offer influences the ranking of a player, for example.

That’s not necessarily wrong.  Given their track record, if the Alabama staff thinks a player is worthy of an offer and the recruiting services have him rated low, the services would be well advised to give the player another look.  That’s smart business.

In my mind, that’s different than a name influencing the ranking, but I think it’s inevitable as humans are doing the rankings.

When national podcasts say “Arch Manning” over and over for Google search purposes, even as a “joke”, that shows that his name alone has influence.

So much of how these star players develop depends on the situation they’re put in and how they adapt to that situation.

The environment and people around these young stars go a long way to determining their success or failure

Arch Manning has great people surrounding him that know the business of college football and the business of the NFL, of that there is no doubt.

I’m sure due diligence was done and careful consideration was given to this decision.

While not an expert on the University of Texas, I have lived in the Austin area for a long time and been privy to the highs and lows and drama around the program and a fair amount of it has not been good.

Perhaps that’s turning with Steve Sarkisian and the new staff, though you wouldn’t know it from last years results.

On the positive side, Texas recruiting has been spectacular and Manning will have ample help.

When things are good at Texas, they are very good and when they’re bad, they go very bad, very quickly.

It hasn’t been that way at Clemson, at least not for the last 10 years or so, things have developed on a pretty straight line with 10 win seasons, playoff berths and a couple of National Championships.

Yes, Clemson has had quarterbacks not live up to expectations and face scrutiny, but nothing like the expectations that will be placed on Manning at Texas.

If you think D.J. Uiagalelei has heard it from fans, multiply that by 20 and you have your Texas quarterback when he fails.

All this to say, rankings are just that – rankings. Ultimately, rankings guarantee neither success or failure, no matter your last name, even Manning.

Whether in college or the NFL Manning will be given opportunities that other quarterbacks won’t, based on pedigree alone.

That’s not necessarily wrong, but it’s also a double edged sword, as that’s often more opportunity to fail and be blasted for it.

Both are good quarterbacks, but the situations they’ve chosen are vastly different and that makes for an interesting few years of evaluation before we can even begin to answer the question.