Charlie Ward offers support to Arch Manning, recalls he was booed before Heisman-winning season
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Arch Manning was considered among a group of Heisman Trophy favorites before the season began.
Things haven’t quite gone according to plan for the Texas quarterback, though.
The Longhorns defeated UTEP 27-10 in Week 3. That moved them to 3-0, but the fact that this was only a 14-3 game at halftime didn’t go over well at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium. In fact, Manning was booed late in the second quarter as he threw for just 69 yards on 5-of-16 passing, including an interception, in the first half — including 9 straight incompletions.
Manning has at least one former Heisman winner in his corner: Charlie Ward, who won the award as part of Florida State’s 1993 national championship team before spending 11 years in the NBA.
“When you go through different experiences and you see someone else going through it, you just want to offer some support because there are a lot of people out there killing him about his play, like he doesn’t recognize that he’s not playing well,” Ward said on CBS Sports HQ on Tuesday.
Ward, who said he contacted Manning after Saturday’s game, recalled his 1992 season, a year in which he threw 22 touchdowns and 17 interceptions but eventually finished 6th in the Heisman voting.
“I struggled throwing interceptions, making bad decisions as well, but the one thing that I saw when I saw he got booed and what have you, I just immediately went back to ’92 when I was struggling, and I actually got booed at home,” Ward said. “And that was one of the reasons why I reached out to him.”
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
