Feel free to get off the bloated Arch Manning hype train after his Week 1 dud
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Honestly, the Arch Manning hype train was well past capacity. To call it bloated would be an understatement on par with saying that Texas had a poor Week 1 offensive performance at Ohio State.
You get it.
Generational talent? Eh, Saturday in Columbus wasn’t the place for that. Not with that game plan. Not in that atmosphere. Not against that Ohio State defense, which was the backbone of a 14-7 victory against Manning’s No. 1 Texas squad. Manning was instead the quarterback of the first preseason No. 1 team to get shut out in a first half since 1988 Florida State (H/T Brett McMurphy).
Well, the 2 throws that Manning made — one a touchdown to Parker Livingstone and the 30-yard dime to Jack Endries on the final Texas drive — were indeed remarkably impressive. The Manning hype train drivers will use those 2 plays to explain why NFL teams will jeopardize their future to secure the rights to his talents.
But Manning’s debut as QB1 for Texas was mostly one to forget. Or rather, it’ll be one that plenty of people use as their reason why Manning was overhyped to epic proportions.
Let’s be clear. Manning was indeed overhyped. Manning himself admitted that.
A guy with 2 career starts who was being mocked as the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft was unprecedented. This was going to take a LeBron James-level type of showing from the jump in order for Manning to retain the entirety of the bandwagon. No, that point wasn’t made because Manning played his 2025 debut at the school that James claims, but again, you get it.
Manning’s debut wasn’t just “slow down the hype train.” It was “let’s make sure that the train has a working set of wheels”
That part of Manning’s game — the wheels — still looks the part. When he gets on the edge and decides to run, he’s a factor. He wasn’t necessarily a game-breaker, but it was the steadiest part of his game until those last 2 drives. If there was a positive for the Texas offense in this game, it was that an offensive line with 4 new starters was fine. CJ Baxter flashed some of that 5-star elusiveness in his return from last year’s season-ending injury, and returning 1,000-yard rusher/preseason All-SEC running back Tre Wisner showed off his slippery ways at moments. They combined for 120 rushing yards on 26 carries.
But yeah, none of that matters when you can’t get a yard on 4th-and-1 from the goal line. When has Texas heard that before against Ohio State?
This time, it wasn’t a sweep play that did Texas in. It was a failed Manning sneak that ultimately felt like the last Texas opportunity to actually win the game.
Twice, Texas left the red zone without points. Steve Sarkisian didn’t exactly fend off the critiques of him juggling play-calling and head coaching duties. Saturday wasn’t the day for that, either.
Never mind the fact that Texas actually had a 336-203 total yards advantage. In his first game as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, Matt Patricia had an answer for everything that Sarkisian threw at him. That included the final play of the game when Manning was tasked with avoiding a free rusher on 4th-and-5. That came up short, much like pretty much everything Manning did.
The varied release points? Not so much. The downfield throws to the middle of the field? Not on target. The touch throws that demanded he lead a receiver in space? Not today.
The most notable example of that came on a throw to Ryan Wingo, who was expected to be Manning’s new go-to target after they had a clear connection in his 2 starts in 2024. But on 3rd-and-5 from midfield, Manning couldn’t lead Wingo, who was unable to haul in what would’ve been a 1-handed grab to move the chains and keep a potential game-tying drive alive.
If Manning makes that throw on target, who knows how that drive shakes out? Does Texas have Ohio State’s defense on its heels enough to mount a remarkable comeback? That was hardly a certainty given the Texas red-zone woes vs. Ohio State.
Consider that a reminder that this is still a game of inches.
Lost in all the offseason Manning hype train discussion was that his margin for error was going to be virtually nonexistent
And not from a “wins and losses” standpoint. The Texas defense will help him out with that. It did its best to give Manning a chance to be the hero on Saturday. A whole lot of people would’ve had to bail on pre-4th quarter thoughts had Manning even just forced overtime. That’s not how this works, though.
Manning’s legacy wasn’t defined by missing that throw to Wingo, or coming up inches short on the goal. Post-Week 1 conversations in college football have a tendency of shifting a touch over the course of the next few months. Manning will have a runway to do just that. Is it a given? Of course not. Expanded Playoff or not, 2024 Clemson was the first team to make the Playoff after losing in Week 1. That only happened because the Tigers snuck into the ACC Championship Game and won it. We’ve never seen a 9-3 team get an at-large berth.
Time will tell if that’s a feat for Manning and Co. to overcome. Lord knows he’s got plenty of opportunities left to get the hype train ramped up again.
It came to a halt on Saturday. That’s fine. It needed some people to hop off.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
