They crowned Arch Manning before he had earned it, then condemned him when he couldn’t live up to the impossible expectations they created. Last year, some analysts even called him “college football’s first flop.” But as Manning begins to deliver this season, his uncle is finally calling out the critics who rushed to tear him down.
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“Last year, the expectations were not fair. I mean, he’d played in two games, and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘All right, he’s going to win the Heisman Trophy, and he’s going to do all these things.’ Like, you got to play some games. You got to get hit. You’ve got to have some bad games. You need to have bad games to learn from that,” Eli Manning said during his September 10 appearance at ‘The Colin Cowherd Podcast.’
Arriving at Texas as the nation’s No. 1-ranked prospect, the young quarterback spent two seasons waiting behind Quinn Ewers while Steve Sarkisian gradually prepared him for college football.
Before taking over as the starting quarterback, Manning had made just two career starts, both in 2024, when he filled in for an injured Ewers against UTSA and Louisiana-Monroe. Outside of those appearances, his experience was limited to brief stints in cleanup duty.
People never looked beyond his two career starts. Instead, they focused on the “Manning” name and built sky-high expectations around him. And when he stumbled during the first half of the 2025 season, many of those who once praised him quickly became his harshest critics.
“And no one was giving him the opportunity or the chance to have a bad game. It was like, ‘All right, he’s already above that.’ Like, no, you have to—that’s part of playing in college football. That’s part of playing in games, is to have a terrible first half. Hey, can you turn it around in the second half? Hey, you lose a game. Can you bounce back next week?” said Eli Manning.
Sky-high expectations for a Texas Longhorns quarterback are nothing new; they have been a part of the program for decades. Vince Young was the nation’s top quarterback recruit in 2002 and endured his own early growing pains before becoming a Longhorn legend and delivering the program’s most recent national championship in 2005.
Then came Colt McCoy, who faced the daunting task of living up to the standards set by Young. He, too, faced criticism early in his career but bounced back, becoming Texas’ winningest quarterback and leading the Longhorns to the 2009 national championship game.
Even Quinn Ewers faced similar pressure as a top recruit, and despite battling injuries and facing harsh criticism, he led Texas to a conference title and consecutive College Football Playoff semifinal appearances.
As Eli Manning said, sometimes you have to go through fire to grow, and that’s exactly what Arch Manning did. His 2025 campaigns started with a sluggish game against Ohio State. Manning took some time to find his footing as a first-year starter for Texas.
The second half of the 2025 season saw him display glimpses of talent everyone was raving about. However, none of that would have mattered had his 2026 season begun similarly to last year. But with improved offensive weapons, Arch Manning showed considerable advances in Texas’ Week 1 win over Texas State.
Facing Ohio State in Week 2, Arch Manning and the Texas offense looked as bad as last year for the first three quarters of the game. Then the flipped the switch. Manning had his own Super Bowl LI moment, leading Texas from a 20–3 deficit entering the fourth quarter to a stunning 24–23 victory.
The comeback evoked memories of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots’ historic rally from 28–3 to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
Arch has learned from his mistakes last year and has put himself back in the Heisman Trophy conversation this season. But the question remains: Will he be able to carry this momentum forward?