Five-stars Arch Manning, Julian Sayin take different paths to same place

Week 1 of the college football season kicks off with a blockbuster as Texas visits Ohio State in what could be a prelude to a later matchup in the national championship. Former five-star quarterbacks Arch Manning and Julian Sayin will lead the Longhorns and the Buckeyes, respectively, onto the Ohio Stadium field on Saturday afternoon. Here’s how those two elite quarterbacks got here as the two star players definitely took different paths to get to this showdown:

ARCH MANNING

Early in his recruitment, Manning threw at Clemson’s summer camp alongside Nico Iamaleava and others and a source at the time who saw the workout said Manning was “unbelievable” as the Tigers continued to pursue him.

As the New Orleans (La.) Isidore Newman standout worked through his recruitment, Texas, Alabama and Georgia emerged as the three frontrunners with Clemson and many others trailing off.

Manning’s relationship with Texas coach Steve Sarkisian went a long way in the five-star quarterback picking the Longhorns but he was even closer with position coach AJ Milwee, who did a ton of the leg work to win out in this recruitment. Newman coach Nelson Stewart raved about Milwee’s vision and ability to connect with Manning through the process.

It also didn’t hurt from a comfortability factor that Texas took Newman teammate Will Randle to help lock in Manning as well.

Texas could have been tough to beat from the start.

Although then-Alabama coach Nick Saban went to Manning’s basketball game and Georgia pressed heavily as well, the Longhorns’ offense always seemed like a better fit for Manning, who hardly talked about his recruitment while going through it.

As for Ohio State’s pursuit of Manning heading into Saturday’s marquee matchup, coach Ryan Day said this week the Buckeyes tried briefly but the feeling was that Manning was always going to stay somewhere in the south.

The Buckeyes landed four-star Lincoln Kienholz in that 2023 recruiting class and he will serve as Sayin’s backup heading into the Texas game.

“Very little, very little,” Day said of recruiting Manning. “They had their mind set up that they wanted to to play down south. A little bit here and there for sure with his dad, Cooper, but not a whole bunch. He kind of had his mind set but heck of a player.”

JULIAN SAYIN

Michigan and Notre Dame intrigued Sayin early in his recruitment, especially the Wolverines, but as time wore on, the Carlsbad, Calif., five-star quarterback started heavily leaning toward schools in warmer climates.

When you grow up just steps from the Pacific Ocean, playing in Ann Arbor or South Bend becomes less appealing when SEC powers get involved which made his move to Ohio State a little more surprising following his Alabama departure. It also speaks to the job Day and the staff did to convince him it was the right place, surrounded by upper-echelon players.

Sayin worked through the recruiting process deliberately and professionally but also seemed to fall in love with the latest school coming after him.

Georgia was considered the leader early but after five-star Dylan Raiola committed to the Bulldogs – following an earlier pledge to the Buckeyes – Sayin looked elsewhere. Then LSU became the team to beat. Seeing what Joe Burrow had done there was a big influence.

Sayin’s recruitment changed dramatically when he, quarterback coach Danny Hernandez and Kevin Pearson, who was Bryce Young’s coach for a time at Los Angeles Cathedral, visited Alabama for its game against Mississippi State in late October 2022.

By early November, he was committed to the Crimson Tide, called Alabama “the standard in college football” and his recruitment seemed over.

There was always an unsubstantiated rumor that Sayin was going to go where Manning didn’t, one that Sayin dismissed. If Manning chose Alabama, Sayin, who also loved Sarkisian, could end up with the Longhorns. When Manning picked Texas, Sayin eliminated the Longhorns and chose the Crimson Tide later.

Sayin arrived at Alabama in early January as a mid-year enrollee. On Jan. 10, Saban retired. Two days later, the Crimson Tide hired Kalen DeBoer from Washington. By the end of the month, Sayin transferred to Ohio State.

According to Armen Keteyian and John Talty’s book ‘The Price: What It takes to Win in College Football’s Era of Chaos’, DeBoer made Sayin wait for an extended period of time during their first meeting and asked Sayin to spell his name, acting like he wasn’t familiar with him at all.

Some took that as DeBoer’s way of shuffling Sayin out as he was bringing his quarterback – Austin Mack – with him from Washington. Sayin left Tuscaloosa only weeks later to now become the starting quarterback at Ohio State.