In one of the most anticipated matchups of Week 1, Arch Manning made his first appearance as Texas’ full-time starting quarterback. The former top recruit went up against Ohio State in Columbus against a revamped defense, and it became an up-and-down performance.
Manning’s day generated a strong response after he entered the year as a preseason frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy. To ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., though, it’s not worth overreacting.
Kiper acknowledged the stakes of Texas’ season opener and the task of going against new Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, who previously spearheaded the New England Patriots’ defenses under Bill Belichick. That presented quite a task for Manning’s third career start. But with questions swirling about whether he’ll even declare for the NFL Draft, Kiper said he’s withholding judgment.
“At the end of the day, you sit there and say, penalties, missed opportunities and some inaccurate throws and missed opportunities by Arch. But they did settle down,” Kiper said on First Draft. “And I said it after it was over, all I was thinking was I have Penn State beating Texas for the national title. … So Texas, they’re not out of it. Not by any stretch of the imagination. The first thing I thought was in three, four weeks, what would this game look like if they played again? Or if this game would have been played in early to mid-October instead of now – which it couldn’t be, but if it was, it’d be a different ball game.
“So for Arch, we said if he struggles, he’s probably going to be back anyway. I talked about it last week, Mitchell Trubisky and Trey Lance and Mark Sanchez and the list goes on and on and on of the guys that had just a minimal number of starts. They should have had more – they didn’t. Arch has to go back. Now, if he comes out – we said if he has a phenomenal year and he wins a national title and he’s [the] Heisman, maybe. Maybe. But even then, maybe not. So for Arch, this is much ado about nothing because I don’t think he’s gonna be part of this draft process anyway.”
Mel Kiper: ‘Arch Manning is basically a rookie in the collegiate ranks’
Arch Manning completed 17 of 30 passes for 170 yards, a touchdown and a pick in the loss to Ohio State. He faced quite the task going up against a Matt Patricia defense, and Mel Kiper pointed out the step up from the Texas quarterback’s previous starts last year.
However, Kiper said Manning wasn’t entirely at fault for the performance. He pointed out the Longhorns’ offensive line issues throughout the matchup and also questioned how they couldn’t get the victory despite putting up more offense than Ohio State.
“I think for Arch to come into this game with the expectations and the hype, and have to deal with Ohio State and Matt Patricia – who was with Bill [Belichick] with three Super Bowl rings,” Kiper said. “And they always say about rookie quarterbacks against Belichick and Patricia, it’s not working, right? And Arch Manning is basically a rookie in the collegiate ranks. Two starts against cupcakes. Now, we said, if he struggles, so what? … You don’t have a scrimmage against another opponent. Now, you’re throwing guys together. This offensive line is an issue they’ve got to fix. They got to fix that offensive line problem, and that will certainly impact Arch moving forward.
“But the first throws bounced. He had guys open. He missed some receivers. With all these struggles in the first half, second half, they got it going a little bit. At the end of the day, you look at the numbers, how’d they lose the football game? They had 133 more total yards than Ohio State. Ohio State averaged nothing per carry – 2.3 yards a rush. Texas was able to run the football. Think about Jeremiah Smith, great receiver, best player in college football, right? He didn’t do anything to hurt them.”
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