Arch Manning gets horrible benching news

Texas Longhorns starting quarterback Arch Manning came into this season with more hype than any college football player in recent memory, despite having never served as a starter for a full season. Before the season started, ESPN’s draft expert Mel Kiper ranked him as the top quarterback prospect in the 2026 class.

“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.

Kiper wasn’t alone. Paul Finebaum, one of ESPN’s top college football analysts and an SEC expert, said Manning, “is the best college football quarterback we have seen since Tim Tebow entered the scene in 2006.”

Unfortunately, it’s been tough sledding this year. Whenever the Longhorns have faced real competition, Manning has struggled to look like a starting-caliber quarterback.

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit was asked by Joey Galloway on their Nonstop podcast if head coach Steve Sarkisian should consider benching Manning and had a brutal response.

“I don’t know,” Herbstreit responded. “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 also said that he could see Manning handling a potential benching well.

“It’s a fair question,” Herbstreit 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.”

It’ll be interesting to see where Texas goes from here.