The hard truth about Arch Manning's injury situation

Jeff Hauser

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The hard truth about Arch Manning's injury situation image

Arch Manning came into the season as a Heisman Trophy favorite and was said to have Texas in contention for a national title. Who lied to us? This isn't what the Arch experience has brought us in the first three games.

Maybe this is just a warm-up on better things to come, but underwhelming and unimpressive isn't far off about Manning's day vs. Utep. Nobody could have predicted this a few weeks ago When Ohio State made the Longhorns take home a loss in the opener.

No. 7 Texas beat UTEP 27-10 on Saturday, but what's going on behind the scenes? 

Manning ended the contest 11-of-25 for 114 yards with a touchdown and interception. Not for a quarter, but the entire game. On3's  Ari Wasserman said it perfectly in a tweet. "Arch Manning thoughts: 1. If he is injured and this is the result, he shouldn't be playing. 2. If he isn't injured and this is the result, that's bad."

Many have started to speculate if Manning is dealing with an injury and hiding it to play. This was more noticeable last week with Arch showing obvious signs of being in pain. Regardless of what's really going on in Austin, the truth will come out one way or another. Either Texas is about to get hammered in SEC play because Manning is injured or we'll see the situation how it's meant to play out. 

The season doesn’t really start for Texas until Oct. 4 when they travel to Florida. It will be a good test of sorts. However, the week after with No. 13 Oklahoma will answer a lot of questions. At that point, the longhorns will either be a contender or a pretender. There's no middle ground. 

After watching the way Manning played Saturday, don't bet on this being a year Texas returns to the College Football Playoff. 

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Jeff Hauser

Jeff Hauser is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He has over twenty years of experience and is a two-time Emmy Award winner, Heisman Trophy and Biletnikoff Award voter. Among the events he has covered are the Super Bowl, College Football Playoff, World Series, World Cup, and WBC Boxing. Hauser is a regular guest on FOX Sports and ESPN Radio. He previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, SB Nation and Athlon Sports.