Texas QB Arch Manning already proving he is more than his last name

During Arch Manning’s larger-than-life recruitment in the 2023 cycle, there was a question constantly floating around: What would the five-star prospect be ranked if he had a different last name? 

It was an interesting thought exercise because you couldn’t possibly dream up a recruit that would command more hype and attention. One recruiting analyst would still have him ranked as the No. 1 overall player in the class and another would call him a three-star prospect in disguise. Overrated. Underrated. Around and around we’d go. 

We’re now, a few years later, finally starting to get a clear picture of who was. 

Though he has remained as anonymous as a Manning could possibly during his first year at Texas, we got clues — glimpses — of this kid being for real. It was odd for us to accept that someone as hyped and famous would be fine sitting behind another quarterback for two years before ever getting his shot to start, but with him, it made sense. His family — the First Family of Football — had a plan and they were in no rush for his time to come. Wait. Learn. Develop.

Saturday night was his official coming out party. 

In the second quarter of Texas’ 56-7 win over UTSA on Saturday night, Quinn Ewers left the game with a non-contact injury. Ewers later returned to the sideline in street clothes after what head coach Steve Sarkisian said was a strained abdomen. There was no reason to rush Ewers back into a game against an overmatched opponent, especially given Manning was cooking the Roadrunners. 

In Manning’s first play in the game, Manning threw a 19-yard touchdown strike to DeAndre Moore Jr. On the next possession, he took a run 67 yards to the house. Yes, you read that right. A Manning ran for a 67-yard score. Legend has it that his father, Cooper Manning, was more athletic than either his brothers, Peyton and Eli. 

Arch started hot and never cooled down. He’d later connect on three more touchdowns, one to Isaiah Bond, another to Ryan Wingo and another to Johntay Cook.

Manning finished the game 9-of-12 passing for 223 yards (18.4 yards per completion) and four touchdowns. He also rushed for 53 yards and another score. But stats aren’t what this is about. Players at Texas are good enough to stack up crazy statistics against programs who simply cannot athletically measure up. 

This is about Manning having that look about him. You can just tell he’s special. He’s a 6-foot-4, 225-pounder with a rocket arm. He also is very athletic and fast. Those things we all should have seen — all of us — while he was still a recruit at New Orleans (La.) Isidore Newman.

We were blinded by Manning’s last name. Through no fault of his own, he has been subject to attack after attack about how his entire profile is only because of his two superstar uncles. It was easy to roll your eyes at him and dismiss it all as hype, to say that he didn’t play against top-notch competition in high school.

But it’s wrong. It always has been.

Maybe, just maybe, his bloodline will turn out to be an asset to a player with supremely impressive physical traits. Understanding the game, not being in a rush to play, taking his time, not overly focusing on the allure of NIL, all of it.

Manning has been preparing in the shadows to be the next great college football quarterback.

It’s still too soon to know how much more time, if any, Ewers is going to miss with this injury. But if the injury is bad and Ewers winds up having to miss multiple games, Texas can head into the SEC knowing it has a quarterback ready and able to compete at a high level in the SEC.

If Ewers is back next week when Texas faces Louisiana-Monroe, we’ll all just have to continue to be patient. While we wait, we’ll know Manning is waiting in the wings, both as a backup quarterback and the exciting future of a Texas football program Sarkisian and Ewers brought back to the top.

What we don’t need to do is ask ourselves what Manning should have been rated. The recruiting services got it right.

All that’s left to do is see how close he can actually come to meeting the most hype ever assigned to a high school football prospect in the history of recruiting.

Guess what: he might actually do it.