The Arch Manning era as the Texas Longhorns starting quarterback suffered a detour as they lost their first game of the College Football season against Ohio State. Manning, who comes from football royalty and has really high expectations on his shoulders, wasn’t as stellar as some hoped. Hence, the reactions across social media were numerous.
From posts like “Don’t ridicule Arch Manning for struggling in his 1st real start at the defending national champion, ridicule the media that handed him the Heisman & named him the 1st pick of the NFL Draft for clicks,” from College Sports Only to others like “We’ve gone from ‘Texas would’ve won the National Championship with Arch Manning’ to ‘Texas wins this game with Quinn Ewers‘,” from Cutter Whitley, the opinions are very varied.
What it’s true is that Arch Manning was dealt an awful hand by debuting against the reigning champions in the Buckeyes, one of College Football‘s best and storied programs. On the other side, when you’re as good of a prospect like Manning, these are the games that propel you to new heights and he failed to deliver. Manning ended the game with a statline of 17/30 completions, 170 yds, one touchdown and one interception. Ohio State won the game 14-7.
People are calling Arch Manning out for his last name
After an underwhelming first game, people are already jumping to conclusions. Some are even comparing him to Shedeur Sanders or NBA’s Bronny James and cataloguing him as a ‘nepo baby’. Nepo baby refers as a “person whose career is in a similar field to their successful parent, and who has benefited from the connections and advantages that came with their family ties.”
The facts are that, while Arch Manning definitely comes from one of football’s most well-regarded families, a few months ago everyone was on the hype train. Manning was a five-star recruit out of high school. ESPN even had him as a top-2 overall prospect. Some might say that he is heavily scrutinized due to his family name. That would go contrary to being a nepo baby.
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It’s still a long season for Arch Manning to recover
Manning was very self-conscious about his performance against the Buckeyes, but his head coach, Steve Sarkisian, endorsed him heavily after the game. The Longhorns have some ‘easy’ games in the next three weeks before two tough tests.
They face SJSU, UTEP and Sam Houston next. This games will serve Manning well, as he should definitely thrive and gain some confidence. After that, there are two tough games away at Florida and hosting Oklahoma. While Texas should still be favored, those are ranked teams with high expectations on their own. Manning needs to have good performances to build some credibility among the fanbase.
