The Texas Longhorns and starting quarterback Arch Manning were the talk of the town heading into this season of college football, with many declaring Manning one of the best quarterback talents in years.
Unfortunately, Manning’s opening week performance against the Ohio State Buckeyes, a loss, left a lot to be desired. Now, one prominent ESPN analyst is throwing salt on the wound, and saying that Manning’s standing in the media is due to the name on the back of his jersey, rather than his actual performance on the field.
“This is the beautiful part about all of this. People don’t want to really criticize him as harshly because he is a Manning and they want to stay in good favor with the Mannings, right? This is a big name in our sport,” Desmond Howard said, according to Awful Announcing.
“So what they do is they make it seem like Matt Patricia, the defensive coordinator for Ohio State, just called this brilliant game that kept Steve Sarkisian and Arch Manning off balance for four whole quarters.
“Now Matt Patricia did call a very good game. There’s no doubt about that. But, I saw guys on SportsCenter and other shows pulling like three tape plays and showing how he may have confused Arch Manning with a look or secondary switch at the last minute,” Howard added.
“And I’m watching the film and I can show you ten to twelve plays where guys were running wide open and he either just didn’t hit them with the ball or he didn’t see these guys. It wasn’t that complex or that complicated. He struggled the way I thought he would struggle because even though he’s been in the system for three years, you look at him and he’s never really played in these meaningful games so the hype was blown way out of proportion for Arch Manning.”
Fans reacted to Howard’s take on social media.
“No criticism would be needed if he wasn’t so over-hyped. He looked like a guy that was making his 3rd or 4th start in college. Nothing more, nothing less. But the over-hype wasn’t lived up to. Not his fault. He’ll be fine, media just needs to chill,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“He’s not wrong. Klatt refused to criticize anything he did all gm. It was bizarre,” one fan added.
“Thats why ESPN is dead. I have to watch the broadcast but I ALWAYS listen to the school radio broadcast,” another fan added.
It’ll be interesting to see how Arch does the rest of the season.
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.