Texas Longhorns starting quarterback Arch Manning entered this season with a level of hype that would be hard to live up to, despite having never served as a starter for a full season. Prior to Manning taking even a single snap, ESPN’s draft expert Mel Kiper listed him as the top quarterback prospect in the 2026 class, despite him not even indicating that he’d enter the draft early.
“We put him at No. 1 because we have to. It’s Arch Manning. We saw glimpses last year of the greatness he could provide that Texas offense. Running the football, he’s got great legs. Cooper Manning, his father, was a wide receiver until he got injured. So he’s got speed – something Eli and Peyton didn’t have…” Kiper said.
Paul Finebaum, one of ESPN’s top college football analysts and an SEC expert also had high praise, saying Manning, “is the best college football quarterback we have seen since Tim Tebow entered the scene in 2006.”
As it turned out, it really was too hard to live up to for Manning. Whenever he’s faced a level of competition capable of providing a real challenge, Manning has struggled to look like a starting-caliber quarterback.
ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit was recently asked on his Nonstop podcast if head coach Steve Sarkisian should consider benching Manning and had a brutal response.
“I don’t know,” Herbstreit answered. “I saw Matthew Caldwell come in and throw an absolute strike. Like, when he came in, when Arch Manning’s helmet went off and he came in and just threw a laser, threw a dart, I was like, ‘Can he throw one more ball?’”
Herbstreit even conceded that Manning might handle the benching well.
“It’s a fair question,” he said. “I think of all the guys that you would bench, he’d probably handle it the best, probably because of his family and his background. And it’s like, hey, you know, if you make that decision, we got to live by it and move on.”
Fans reacted to Herbstreit on the internet.
“Manning went from the golden boy who was supposed to have an amazing nfl career to someone who might not even be on the roster at UT if he gets benched. Oh how the tide has turned,” one fan commented on YouTube.
“All you media folks hyped texas and Manning so much all summer and put them way too high in ranking,” someone else added.
“You guys don’t want to criticize MANNING—because of his family-relationship with ESPN—he’s plain terrible,” another person added.
It’ll be interesting to see if Manning can get things back on track.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.