Arch Manning won't be the only football star on the field Saturday night. Meet General Booty!

Arch Manning has the most famous last name in football.

The starting quarterback, on the other hand, when Texas hosts Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday night may have the most memorable name in sports – General Booty.

The redshirt junior, a transfer from Texas' archrival Oklahoma, led the Warhawks to a 2-0 start and has a close connection with Manning, even though the two quarterbacks have never met.

Three decades ago, their uncles, both Louisiana natives, were the two top quarterback recruits in the country in the class of 1993. Arch's uncle Peyton was the Gatorade National Player of the Year and General's uncle Josh was the USA Today Offensive Player of the Year and the Parade National Player of the Year.

These prolific quarterbacks also had younger brothers who had impressive college careers. Eli Manning was a star at Ole Miss and then won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants. John David Booty played for Arch's current coach Steve Sarkisian at USC and led the Trojans to multiple Rose Bowl victories before playing a few seasons with the Minnesota Vikings.

Their grandfathers were SEC quarterbacks – Archie Manning at Ole Miss, where the campus speed limit (18 mph) is a tribute to his jersey number, and Johnny Booty at Mississippi State.

The strangest twist: Despite both coming from such wealthy quarterback families, their fathers were the underdogs. Both were wide receivers. Cooper Manning signed to play wide receiver at Ole Miss, but his college career was cut short when he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis. Abram Booty was a standout receiver at LSU who played a brief stint with the Cleveland Browns.

“It's funny how it's all come full circle,” Josh Booty said, referring to this week's matchup, which is expected to be one of the most watched games of the weekend as Arch Manning is expected to play for the first time in the college season.

Josh Booty, General's uncle, played two years at LSU after playing professional baseball for five years. (Scott Halleran / Getty Images)

Manning, a five-star recruit, had an impressive performance against UTSA last week after starter Quinn Ewers had to leave the game in the second quarter with an abdominal injury. On his first play, Manning threw a 19-yard touchdown pass. Two plays later, he ran 67 yards for a touchdown, putting on a performance we've never seen from his legendary uncles. The 19-year-old reached a top speed of 20.7 mph as he sprinted away from the defense. Before the night was over, Manning had scored five touchdowns, including four through the air, in a 56-7 victory.

The younger Manning has fit in seamlessly at Texas despite the incredible hype surrounding his arrival on campus. Texas coaches rave about his work ethic, athleticism and demeanor – all under the brightest spotlight a young quarterback has faced entering college in years.

The quarterback of the team he plays against Saturday night, General Booty, has become something of a cult hero. He is the latest in a long line of quarterbacks from a football family in northwest Louisiana, where his grandfather led the burgeoning Evangel Christian Academy program to 14 state football titles and a national championship.

But General has had the most circuitous path in his family, including playing for four different high schools – two in California (freshman at Newport Beach, third-place finisher at San Juan Capistrano) and two in Texas (runner-up at San Antonio and fourth-place finisher, after the COVID-19 outbreak, at Allen).

His college career began at Tyler Junior College in Texas, where he led the nation in passing with 3,410 yards in 2021. After a year at Tyler, he signed with Oklahoma and spent two seasons as the backup to Dillon Gabriel – who became one of his best friends. With five-star Jackson Arnold slated to replace him at OU, Booty entered the portal in May and signed with ULM, not far from his family's roots in Shreveport, where his grandparents still live.

His unique name has always caused triple looks and giggles, especially outside of Louisiana.

“At first, people didn't believe that was really my name,” he said. “They said, 'What's your real name? Show me your driver's license.' They wanted to make fun of me. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I think it's pretty cool.”

When General's father Abram was growing up, he loved reading about military strategy and history.

“I was just a huge Army fan,” Abram said. “I asked my wife if we ever had a boy, could we name him General. She said OK. I think at the time she thought it would just be a temporary thing. But in the end, it suits him well. He's a great leader. It's obviously a very unique name, especially combined with our last name, and it's opened a lot of doors for him.”

Booty capitalizes on his unique name with his own line of t-shirts available at GeneralBootyShop.com. And sales are going pretty well, according to his father. There are slogans like “Booty Call” and “General Booty Reporting for Duty.”

“It started in Oklahoma, and he donated a portion of the proceeds to the Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City,” Abram said. “We had orders from Louisiana, Texas, Finland and Germany. It was incredible. I don't know how people found out about him. He was able to donate a lot of money to the hospital. In the first two years, he sold over 60,000 T-shirts and donated 20 percent to the Children's Hospital.”

“I was able to stand out just because of my name,” General said. “I have good character and I give back to the community. People won't forget my name. That was memorable. The fans at OU were great.”

Two years ago, when the Sooners played in the Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando, Florida, Gabriel — who began his career at UCF — showed Booty around his old town and introduced him to a friend of his who worked at Rock 'Em Socks, a well-known sock manufacturer based in Florida. They were excited about the possibility of doing something with Booty.

“We want to launch a line of underwear,” they told him. “How about making a splash here in the summer? We'll do a photo shoot. We'll put 'Booty' on the back.”

Booty seized the opportunity.

“I liked what they did,” he said. “It was fun. We're trying to get some Warhawk stuff going. We'll have another line coming out soon.”

The Warhawks have already matched their winning record from last year, when they finished 2-10. New coach Bryant Vincent has breathed new life into a Sun Belt program that hasn't finished with a win since 2012. ULM beat Jackson State in the opening game and then, despite being 11.5-point underdogs, crushed UAB 32-6. Booty's numbers have been modest so far, completing 63 percent of his passes for 191 yards and a touchdown with 24 rushing yards.

“He's a lot faster than me and (John David) and he's smart,” Josh Booty said. “I just hope he can play well against Texas.”

Although they played in the same state at the same time, Josh Booty and Peyton Manning never faced each other.

“We were always in different classes in high school,” Josh said. “JD never played against Eli and I never played against Peyton. We were 1A and Peyton was 2A. JD was 5A and Eli was 2A.”

Josh, who threw for over 11,000 yards in high school and was a four-time All-State shortstop, and Peyton were recruited by the same schools.

“It was Texas, Florida, Tennessee, A&M, LSU, Ole Miss,” Josh said. “I remember going on a recruiting trip to LSU. Obviously Archie was great, but I don't think they knew Peyton was going to be that good. I had the baseball stuff with (Tigers coach Skip) Bertman. LSU just believed the whole thing with me. As I was walking down the sideline, the student section was cheering 'Let's Go Booty!' We were on the same visit. I don't remember if it was a big game. I was at three or four of those things. That was the first time I met him.

“Man, he was good! He was just so much smarter than everyone else. He just knew everything about everything. He was so detail-oriented. He never missed a thing. His awareness was incredible.”

Archie Manning helped the Booty family in the recruiting process.

“He had a lot of great insights for my dad,” Josh said. “My dad really relied on him. Archie is great.”

Although Manning signed with Tennessee and eventually became one of the most recognizable figures in the sport, Booty chose a different path. He was selected by the Florida Marlins with the fifth overall pick in the 1994 MLB Draft and received a then-record signing bonus of $1.6 million. But after playing in just 26 games in three seasons in the major leagues, Booty returned to football and enrolled at LSU in 1999. He played two seasons with the Tigers and later spent parts of three seasons with the Browns.

Josh, the oldest Booty brother – the one who made the family name known throughout Louisiana through his record-breaking high school career at Evangel Christian – has spent hundreds of hours training his nephew.

“We spent a lot of time on his movements, his release and his footwork,” Josh said.

General Booty said they are all looking forward to Saturday night in Austin.

“With Arch competing for the first time and Texas moving up to No. 1 this week, we know a lot of people are going to be watching,” he said. “We're all excited to play on that stage. Nobody really expects us to win or even put up much of a fight. Obviously, Texas is a great test to see how far we've come. We're going to give it our all. We've got nothing to lose. Everyone is really fired up for that environment. We just want to go out there and compete and show people what we can do.”

(Photos by Arch Manning, General Booty: Scott Wachter / USA Today, Lauren Witte / Clarion Ledger / USA Today Network)