After two years of waiting, Texas Longhorns fans are finally getting their wish — Arch Manning will be the team’s starting quarterback heading into its season opener against the defending College Football Playoff national champion Ohio State Buckeyes on Aug. 30 in Columbus.
Manning showed just enough flashes last season while filling in for an injured Quinn Ewers for a handful of games to get the Longhorn fan base excited. In fact, many of them called for Ewers to be benched in favor of Manning even after returning from his abdominal injury that sidelined him for a month from mid-September to mid-October.
During that span, Manning performed admirably.
He completed 67.8% of his passes while throwing for 939 yards, nine touchdowns and two interceptions, and rushing 108 yards and four more scores. Manning also led UT to its first-ever conference win as a member of the SEC—a 35-13 blowout of Mississippi State on Sept. 28—and he won both games he started by a combined score of 86-16.
But despite all of the hype surrounding the 21-year-old sophomore, Manning still has his doubters.
Count former Florida Gators head coach Steve Spurrier among them, as the former national championship-winning coach recently shared his concerns about Manning during an appearance on the “Another Dooley Noted Podcast.”
“People picking Texas to win the SEC in football,” Spurrier said. “They’ve got Arch Manning already winning the Heisman, too. And my question is, if he was this good, how come that they let Quinn Ewers play all the time last year? And he was a seventh-round pick.”
Spurrier also pointed out that Ewers was the 231st pick in the 2025 NFL draft, and was just 26 spots away from potentially going undrafted.
He questioned if so many NFL teams weren’t convinced of Ewers’ pro potential, then why would he let Manning, who’s viewed as the potential No. 1 overall pick in whatever year he enters the draft, sit for two seasons behind a player he was allegedly superior to.
While Spurrier may not be sold on Peyton and Eli Manning’s nephew, that doesn’t mean everyone else feels the same.
Per DraftKings, Manning is currently the betting favorite to win the 2025 Heisman Trophy with +700 odds. He leads a list with four QBs near the top—LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier (+900) is second, Clemson’s Cade Klubnik (+1000) is third, and Ohio State’s Julian Sayin (+1500) is fifth—while Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith is fourth (+1200).
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