AUSTIN, Texas — Three years later, the page brings up an error message.
There’s a certain irony to the the 2023 ESPN 300 disappearing into some internet void after the rankings sent shockwaves through the recruiting world when the service declared Los Alamitos (Calif.) quarterback Malachi Nelson the nation’s No. 1 prospect over New Orleans (La.) Isidore Newman quarterback Arch Manning, the consensus
top player in the class by the other services.
Both were considered can’t-miss prospects — Manning, the scion of football’s first family, and Nelson, the gunslinger with all the arm angles and the ability to make throws to every part of the field.
A matchup between the two in college after Manning signed with the Texas Longhorns and Nelson inked with the USC Trojans was most likely to happen under the bright lights of a high-profile bowl game or in the College Football Playoff.
Instead, the two elite passers took diverging paths to Saturday’s meeting between Manning’s Longhorns and Nelson’s UTEP Miners at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, the culmination of two multi-year journeys to starting roles.
Nelson’s path to becoming a college starter intertwined itself with that of Caleb Williams at multiple points during the recruiting process — Nelson committed to then-Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley in the summer of 2021, months before Williams wrestled the starting job from former top prospect Spencer Rattler by engineering a stunning comeback against the Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl.
When Riley left Norman for Los Angeles in late 2021, Williams followed, and so did Nelson, signing with the Trojans the following year and remaining in Southern California instead of decamping for the Oklahoma plains.
“I thought he was a really talented player in high school. Was a very natural passer and had a quick delivery. DeAndre Moore was actually with him at one point. He was one of the leaders on that team. Obviously was a very high recruit,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said on Wednesday.
Nelson was the third-string quarterback for USC in 2023 behind Miller Moss before opting against a competition against Moss for the starting role the following year, instead entering the NCAA transfer portal and making the surprising decision to transfer to Boise State.
“It was supposed to be Caleb and then [me], that was the whole thing,” Nelson told ESPN last year. “It was supposed to happen at Oklahoma, and then it was supposed to happen at USC. I think that goes back to a part of why it was so difficult for me to leave. This was supposed to happen.”
The first setback happened well before Nelson ever made it to USC, a torn labrum in his left shoulder that Nelson didn’t surgically repair until he got to college, forcing a lengthy rehabilitation process that impacted his ability to compete with Moss.
Preparing for the possibility that Riley would take a quarterback from the transfer portal to replace Williams, Nelson opted to enter the portal himself before Williams even declared for the 2024 NFL Draft, an “unexpected” departure that took Riley by surprise.
“Malachi was fantastic here,” Riley said. “I will root for him forever and ever. He’s gonna go make somebody a heck of a player.”
Nelson’s decision to commit to Boise State was just as unexpected as his decision to leave USC, but perhaps not as surprising as Maddux Madsen bouncing back from a season-ending injury and earning back the starting job he’d lost to Taylen Green when he was hurt by winning the quarterback competition against Nelson.
Undersized at less than 6’0 tall, Madsen was lightly recruited out of high school in the Salt Lake City area — his only other offer was from former Texas wide receivers coach Drew Mehringer at New Mexico — and he arrived in Idaho as the No. 1,657 recruit in the 2022 recruiting class, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.
What Madsen did have was more experience than Nelson, including in the Boise State system, and he never gave Nelson a chance to overtake him, taking advantage of the opportunities provided by defenses focusing on star running back Ashton Jeanty in throwing for 3,018 yards, 23 touchdowns, and six interceptions.
With Madsen still possessing two remaining years of eligibility, Nelson was forced back into the portal. According to ESPN, he “turned down high-profile and more lucrative opportunities because of his faith in UTEP coach Scotty Walden,” making another unexpected decision to land in El Paso, where the Miners have only appeared in two bowl games since 2010 and remain winless bowl games since 1967, the longest drought in the FBS.
There are no more ESPN profiles about Nelson and the only real spotlight is the high-altitude glare of the Chihuahuan desert sun, but Nelson’s winding journey has finally produced a starting role in Walden’s innovative, up-tempo offense after beating out returning starter Skyler Locklear
Through two games, Nelson is 36-of-60 passing (60 percent) for 456 yards, five touchdowns, and an interception. Instead of throwing to fellow former five-star prospects, he’s throwing to transfers from Austin Peay, Clarion University, California (PA), and Trinity Valley CC.
“He’s been on his own journey at this point. It’s great that he’s found a home. He’s playing good football,” Sarkisian said. “Their offense obviously revolves a lot around him being the quarterback and that style of play, so we’ve got to try to to do our best to contain him that way. Hopefully we can disrupt him a little bit with our disguise, coverages, and ultimately with the pass rush.”
While it’s been an unexpected journey for Nelson, quarterbacks transferring regularly in search of starting opportunities or NIL opportunities or both is now the norm around college football, so it’s Manning who represents more of the outlier.
Three years ago, when Manning made his own unexpected decision to commit to Texas, national pundits predicted that Manning and Quinn Ewers wouldn’t even play a single season together, much less two seasons. Now, after a year as the third-string quarterback and a year as the backup quarterback, Manning is the starter after the media built of mountains of hype and buildup and speculation surrounding the consensus No. 1 prospect in the 2023 class.
Because Manning wasn’t a participant in the national camp circuit, he doesn’t know Nelson well — he’s exchanged a couple texts over the years, he thinks — but on Saturday, the two quarterbacks fill face off at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium after unique journeys that no one really expected years after they were tied together by ESPN’s controversial rankings.
