Arch Manning bounced back against San Jose State, but let’s wait until SEC play to fairly assess him
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A week after the worst game and start of his young career, Texas star quarterback Arch Manning showed pundits and haters alike why they must pump the brakes on labeling him one way or another on Saturday.
After struggling against Ohio State at “The Horseshoe” in the biggest spot of his college career, Manning displayed a bounce-back trait all elite quarterbacks must possess. When the dust finally settled, Manning completed 19 of his 30 passes for 295 yards and 4 touchdowns while adding a highlight-reel rushing touchdown where he tiptoed the sideline from 20 yards out this week against San Jose State.
Stats aside, what’s more encouraging if you’re a long-term Manning stockholder was how he overcame a pedestrian start to ultimately put together a heck of a game.
Unlike last week when he seemed timid and perplexed at times by the exotic looks Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia was dialing up, Manning remained very aggressive while having full command of the offense which led to multiple big plays in the second quarter.
“I thought offensively Arch played a really good game. We were able to create explosive pass plays and we are at our best as a football team when we can run it and create those explosive pass plays,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said in his postgame press conference. “I think with Arch, the competitor in him is like I wish I could have that one back from a week ago because there’s probably some plays in there where he’s like I wish I would have cut that lose and did this a little differently. But, I thought today was a by product of the week of work as he played aggressive throughout the week and studied the game plan and I thought today he played more of his style.”
For a 5-minute stretch, Manning put his greatness on full display when he found freshman wideout Parker Livingstone along the left sideline. Livingstone did the rest, turning up the field and racing down the sideline for an 83-yard touchdown. The touchdown was the longest passing touchdown by Texas since 2017 and more importantly was the biggest play of a Manning’s highlight reel stretch where he went 5-for-5 for 142 yards and 4 touchdowns..
The talented redshirt sophomore got so hot he connected for TDs on 3 consecutive passing attempts, which included another touchdown to Livingstone from 3 yards out and 2 to tight end Jack Endries from 36 and 16 yards out, respectively.
Here’s where it’s worth noting that the opponent in Week 2 was San Jose State, so much like Week 1 against Ohio State, we should be patient with making overarching (pun intended) statements either way after facing a pair of diametrically opposite opponents. But, for 1 week, at least, Manning was able to take the game over and give some hope to the Mel Kipers, Paul Finebaums and NFL scouts of the world who were drooling over Arch and his talent all offseason long.
“I thought I went out there and made a few more plays, but once again wasn’t very efficient and a little sloppy as there were too many penalties,” Manning said during his postgame press conference. “I thought I made plays when it was there and got my guys involved a little bit more. I play to a certain standard and sometimes you have to just let go of the past and move on and keep playing rather it’s a bad play or a bad game just move on.”
To be perfectly honest, no matter if you ride with Arch and think he’s one of the best QBs in the nation, or if you think he’s a bum who can’t get it done; he must be allowed to play out this season (or at least get an SEC start or 3 under his belt) before anyone can make an accurate assessment of him as a quarterback. Please let the kid at least play a full SEC schedule before coming to any definite conclusions on whether he can play at a high level or not.
He hasn’t even made a start on the road in SEC play and yet there are some people who think he’s all show and no go. In just 2 weeks we’ve seen the good and bad out of Manning, which is to be expected. In the meantime, can we sit back and enjoy watching the “Arch Manning Show” uninterrupted from now until December so we can make accurate assessments on how good or bad of a QB he actually is?
Kendrick E. Johnson writes for various national outlets such as High School on SI, Yardbarker, ESPN Andscape and MMA Weekly. He is an independent print journalist, sports television reporter and multimedia journalist who has covered the NBA Finals, NFL, NCAA football, MLB, NHL, WWE and over 75 world championship boxing and UFC Fights nationally. Johnson has also covered every prep sport possible in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and all across the great state of Texas. He’s done numerous 1-on-1 interviews with some of the biggest names and personalities in sports from Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry and Shaq on the basketball side to Jon Jones, Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford on the combat sports side and John Cena, Jey and Jimmy Uso and Charlotte Flair in WWE.
