The Texas Longhorns have rebounded nicely from their Week 1 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus, ripping off three straight double-digit wins against the San Jose State Spartans, UTEP Miners, and Sam Houston State Bearkats.
In those performances, Arch Manning has been as hot and cold under center as his demeanor, which has become noticeable for strong yelling outbursts or loud and showy celebrations, depending on what happens on the field.
Two of those showings were good. Against Sam Houston State and San Jose State, Manning had seven passing touchdowns and an interception, with each featuring 295 passing yards or more. The other two were bad. His longest throws against Ohio State and UTEP were 32 and 23 yards, respectively. He threw a touchdown pass and an interception against the Buckeyes and Miners, each.
The Austin American-Statesman’s David Eckert believes Manning probably would’ve liked fewer chances to process failure in his team’s first four games, splitting it down the middle with some good and some bad.
“The beginning of the 2025 season has offered Manning plenty of opportunities to process failure — probably more than he would have liked. His first four games as the Longhorns' full-time starter yielded a 61.3% completion rate, 888 passing yards, nine touchdowns and three interceptions. He's got two good starts to pair with two bad ones,” Eckert wrote.
Few players across college football have been as uniquely disappointing as Manning.
While some see his last name as the reason for unfairly high expectations, it was actually his sterling emergency start in 2024, filling in for Quinn Ewers for the program’s first-ever SEC conference matchup against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Manning was nearly perfect, completing 25/31 passes for 325 yards and two touchdown tosses. Texas arrived in the “It Just Means More” conference in style with a 35-13 win at DKR Stadium last September.
To see him struggle, and even question if he’s hiding an injury, as his Heisman Trophy odds fade, has been difficult to process for those thinking Arch was the next great Manning.
He still might be. It’s just hard to project it based on the first four games of his first season as the Longhorns’ QB1.