When Tennessee Vols legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning was a high school recruit, his dad, former Ole Miss Rebels and New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning, took a very hands off approach.

Archie, in fact, famously fell asleep during an offensive meeting with Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe.

According to an article from Sports Illustrated in 1995, Archie couldn’t name a single Tennessee play while Peyton was the Volunteers’ quarterback.

From Sports Illustrated in 1995: Archie certainly doesn’t want to be Peyton’s coach. When Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe visited Peyton last summer to get him caught up on the offense, he made sure Archie would be home during the meeting. The three of them sat at the Mannings’ dining room table, and Archie promptly fell asleep. “I guess I was just tired,” Archie says with a sheepish grin. “But maybe in some indirect way I was saying, ‘You’re his coach, I’m his daddy. I don’t want to know the ins and outs of the Tennessee offense.’” To this day Archie says he still can’t name a single Tennessee play.

In a few years, Peyton’s son Marshall will be one of the most coveted recruits in the nation. And while it’s easy to assume Peyton will approach his son’s recruitment like Archie did with his, that might not actually be the case.

I’m sure there will be some similarities — Peyton will almost certainly try to shield Marshall from the chaos of a public recruitment battle.

But when it comes to play calls and the offense, it seems likely that Peyton will be more vocal than Archie was three decades ago — at least based on the role that Peyton played in Arch’s recruitment.

According to the book American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback (due to be released in September), Peyton played an important behind-the-scenes role in Arch’s development as a quarterback — including often speaking with Arch’s high school coach about play calls after games.

“Peyton would sometimes hop on the phone with Stewart after games, going through play-calling, and then would follow up a day later wondering if the school needed any donations,” writes Seth Wickersham (via ESPN).

Wickersham also pointed out that Manning would help Arch by putting together private videos of NFL legend Tom Brady’s practices.

“Arch and Cooper flew from New Orleans to Denver, where Uncle Peyton lived,” noted Wickersham. “They worked out at the Broncos facility. Peyton also got Clyde Christensen, a longtime NFL offensive coach who’d worked with him in Indianapolis and Tom Brady in Tampa Bay, to send private videos of Brady’s practices, melding the best of Manning’s theories with Brady’s techniques, two legends funneling into a boy. Peyton texted them to Stewart, telling him to run those drills. There were dozens of video clips.”

I don’t think Peyton will be parading Marshall around during his recruitment. I think we’ll see Peyton try to keep things as quiet as possible. But I also think he’ll be much more involved in making sure that Marshall lands in an offensive system that’s best for his development as a future NFL quarterback.

Texas Longhorns News

‘You could come here and be a normal guy’ – Cooper Manning initially preferred a school other than Texas for Arch Manning

Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning’s recruiting experience was unique. Despite being the most famous high school player in the nation, Arch’s recruitment was remarkably quiet. The Manning family did its best to let Arch experience life as a “normal” high school student. It was a tall task, but the mission was mostly accomplished — rumors […]

Zach Ragan