The coronation of Arch Manning atop college football was cancelled in Week 1, and ESPN’s Paul Finebaum isn’t shy about calling out college football’s potential golden boy. After a pre-season love fest for No. 1 Texas and Manning, who Finebaum himself had labeled a Heisman Trophy favorite and a potential Tim Tebow successor, Ohio State flipped that script in the opening week with a 14-7 win and Manning’s Heisman hopes fell flat on their face.
With that type of performance comes even more scrutiny for the third-generation QB. Paul Finebaum held nothing back on Sunday in his comments on SportsCenter.
You start to worry a little bit about your predictions when Arch has more commercials in the first quarter than he does completions. Ultimately, he was terrible. There’s no getting around it and all the predictions that some people made were shatteringly wrong. They were absurd.”
– Paul Finebaum
How ugly was Texas’s 14-7 loss to Ohio State? The Longhorns hadn’t been held to such a low score since 2021’s game with Iowa State in Steve Sarkisian’s initial 5-7 season with Texas. For Manning’s part, the numbers were ugly on an individual level as well. Manning was 17 for 30 for 170 yards with one touchdown and an overthrown third-quarter interception. Only twice last season did Texas come in under the 5.7 yards per passing attempt that Manning picked up on Saturday.
Of course, ugly performance aside, Manning’s first week game isn’t a huge roadblock on the way to a successful season. Texas will still be one of the favorites to compete in the SEC and that success (or lack thereof) will likely tell the tale of the season.
Even Finebaum wasn’t exactly pulling the plug on Manning’s season or Texas’s chances.
“I don’t think everybody should panic yet,” Finebaum said. “I believe Texas will be in the Playoffs in December and I think Arch Manning will learn from this…. He just got bamboozled by a much better defensive coordinator and it was all she wrote.”
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