Fall’s still a fair way away, but ManningMania is in full force. A lot of thumb-twiddling and a lot of heel-kicking over 2 years and Arch Manning is finally Texas’ QB1. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows down in Austin. Sure, the signs bode well through spring for the Longhorns to have prosperity in the ‘25 season. However, there’s crash and burn potential for this hypetrain. Natty-winning head coach Urban Meyer knows a thing about traversing high expectations at a blueblood, and he’s voiced some concerns based not on subjective hypotheticals around Arch but the more tangible reality of what he’s staring down the barrel of.
Making the semifinal of the CFP and SEC Championship in your first season post-realignment is unequivocally a good, successful season. But scratch the conspicuous surface and look beneath the sheen of Texas’ 13-3 record. You’d realize they weren’t greeted to the full southeastern experience. Steve Sarkisian and co. played merely 1 ranked opponent through the course of the regular season. You can only beat what’s in front of you, and they did take care of business. But fast forward a season, and their path looks a lot more treacherous.
The football gods are really throwing Arch Manning into the deep end instantly. Testing that burnt orange jersey to be able to have more heat, and the mettle of carrying the name on the back of that jersey. Sark will definitely not have to worry about strength of schedule being a factor in his playoff bid! Texas opens their season, and by extension the Arch Manning era, with a trip to Columbus to face the national champions- Ohio State. The team that crushed their hopes and ended their season the last time Texas took to the gridiron. But that week 1 fixture has been marinating ever since it got announced. Buckeyes legend Urban Meyer looked past it into the rest of Sarkisian and Texas’ itinerary over “The Triple Option” podcast. He realized there are two more trips on their schedule that’ll be a litmus test for who Manning really is.
“Here’s what I always looked at [for] my team when I was coaching- what are the ladmines?” said Meyer. “You look right now…there’s two gigantic ones: at Ohio State [and] at Georgia.” Those are teams Steve Sarkisian went 0-3 against last season, including a 15-30 blowout at home to the Bulldogs. So travelling to Athens is a particularly daunting proposition. Urban Meyer stated one more landmine Sark and Manning will have to dodge. “[At] Florida, in the day, was a landmine [when I coached]. It might be again, [QB] DJ Lagway’s back. So I think there’s three landmines,” he remarked. The intricacy of how heading to the Swamp in the day could mean the conditions play a part is why Coach Meyer is who he is. So, does he think Texas makes it through these proverbial landmines unscathed?
#Texas had a memorable first season in the SEC, making it all the way to the conference championship game & falling short in the #CFBPlayoff to the eventual national champions. Now, a veryyy familiar name takes over for the Longhorns at QB1 — it’s Arch Manning season in Austin!… pic.twitter.com/ygPuTMT3kj
— The Triple Option (@3xOptionShow) April 8, 2025
Urban Meyer predicted Sarkisian to go “1-2 or 2-1” through that trifecta of games. While he also aired caution around the Lone Star Showdown against Texas A&M, Meyer believes Texas wins out the remainder of their schedule and make it to double-digit wins. Which should be enough to make the playoffs for a third straight year. However, there are potential banana skins all over the schedule. Meyer even acknowledged how SEC matchups against Kentucky and Mississippi State can be slippery. Aside from dissecting the schedule, he even delved into whether the hype around Arch Manning is warranted and if he’s buying into it.
Urban Meyer clears his stance on Arch Manning’s premature crowning
A microcosm of the sheer weight of expectation upon Arch Manning heading into his first year as the starter is that On3’s Andy Staples has stated anything less than Cam Newton or Johnny Manziel would, for the masses, be considered underwhelming. That says a lot. The name, the school, the 5-star ranking. Even that teaser in ‘24 when Arch started a couple of games in the absence of Quinn Ewers through injury. With so much baked into the equation, Urban Meyer is opting into pragmatism.
Directly addressing “will Arch Manning live up to the hype,” Meyer said, “I think it’s up in the air. I really do. I’ve got to study the personnel around him, because every great quarterback has something in common- great players around them.” While Texas has lost their two most productive players in their receiving corps. the supporting cast is still brimming with talent. “The pressure on that player to be what he’s supposed to be at that school [factors in]. What I’ve seen, [Manning’s] a good player. I’ve just not seen that next level yet,” Meyer continued. A fair rationale given the small sample size of playing time at the collegiate level.
There are a ton of question marks around Steve Sarkisian’s Longhorns. The glass half-empty perspective dictates maneuvering this schedule with a relatively unknown quantity at quarterback is a tall task. The inverse perspective dictates it’s an opportunity Arch Manning was, quite literally, born for. It remains to be seen whether he sinks under the pressure of expectation or swims right through the sharks.
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