High school football: Video, 2021 junior highlights for Arch Manning

The nation's top 2023 football recruit with a top-line pedigree has one more year of high school football. Newman (New Orleans) quarterback  Arch Manning continues to grow but he and his teammates continue to fall just short of their ultimate goal.

The nephew of Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning and Super Bowl winning signal-caller completed 65 percent of his passes for just more than 2,000 yards with 26 touchdowns and four interceptions in 10 games. He also rushed for 365 yards and eight more scores.

He entered the season with 340 career completions on 516 attempts for 4,460 yards, 55 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, to go with 361 career rushing yards and 12 touchdowns as a two-year, 20-game starter.  

With more speed, elusiveness — he broke off a 68-yard touchdown run against a still undefeated and fast Berkeley Prep (Tampa, Fla) on national TV on Oct. 22 — and added size (he's now 6-foot-4, 215 pounds), Manning still very much looks the part of the country's top junior quarterback and recruit.

But the ending of the season, like the previous two, finished in disappointing fashion in 2021. The Greenies lost a lopsided 49-7 game to Lafayette Christian Academy (Lafayette) on Friday to finish 7-3. No shame losing to the Knights, the four-time defending Louisiana High School Athletic Association Division III champions, but the one-sided result left a sour note to an otherwise superb season.

All three losses were to favored, faster teams and physical athletes, the type Manning will see after high school.

He has 12 college offers but that number figures to double or triple by the spring. Among those 247Sports considers "warm," as in Manning is most interested, are Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ole Miss — where Eli and Arch's grandfather Archie attended — and Texas.

He's debating playing his third year on the varsity basketball team, which is the favored to win a state title. The Greenies lost the state Division III basketball championship final 52-48 last March to Dunham (Baton Rouge), which captured its fourth straight title.

"As of today, Arch is playing hoops," Arch's father Cooper Manning texted on Monday.

He'll definitely be playing football as a senior, hoping to lead the Greenies not only to their first state-title game, but also a first championship in school history.

There's a lot coming back including one of the state's top tight ends — and defenders — Will Randle. Wide receivers Kai Donaldson and Saint Villere, running back Will Zurik, and center Heid Manning — Arch's younger brother — are among the other starting returners.

Arch told the Lafayette Daily Advertiser after Friday's loss his plans for the offseason: "Running, getting bigger, getting more accurate. Improving my decision-making. So, it'll be a fun offseason. I'm ready to get back."