The Arch Manning hype train has been in overdrive ahead of the 2025 college football season, which will be his first as the starting quarterback for the top-ranked Texas Longhorns. For months, Vegas oddsmakers have hailed the latest scion of football’s first family as the runaway betting favorite to win the 2025 Heisman Trophy, including drawing +600 odds from BetMGM.
But as Manning prepares to take over as the Longhorns’ QB1 with Saturday’s Top 5 showdown against No. 3 Ohio State, the reigning national champions, not everyone is buying into the hype.
Urban Meyer, the retired former three-time national championship-winning head coach at Florida and Ohio State, became the latest to throw a wet blanket on Manning’s rapid ascension atop the college football world when he declared the Texas QB “hasn’t done anything yet.”
“Arch Manning hasn’t done a thing yet,” Meyer said during Tuesday’s episode of The Joel Klatt Show on YouTube. “I went back, because I’ve said that a few times and some people hit me back with ‘what are you talking about?’ I’m hearing the word ‘Heisman,’ I’m hearing the word ‘National Champion’ and ‘first pick overall.’ So I went back and rewatched (tape) just recently, and he’s a good player. I mean, he’s a really good player. But he’s not … get a couple of first downs.”
Of course, Manning has already gotten more than “a couple of first downs” during his first two seasons in Austin. Last season alone, Manning started two games in place of injured QB1 Quinn Ewers, and finished his redshirt freshman season with 1,043 total yards and 13 touchdowns in 10 games. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian even developed a special package for the dynamic talent, who accumulated 939 yards on 67.8-percent passing and nine touchdowns to just two interceptions through the air.
Urban Meyer suggests Ohio State, Texas coaches ‘be very restrictive’ with passing attack
Nevertheless, Meyer is hardly sold on the nephew of NFL Hall of Fame quarterbacks Eli and Peyton Manning. In fact, he even suggested both Sarkisian and Ohio State head coach Ryan Day severely restrict the gameplan for both Manning and Buckeyes redshirt freshman quarterback Julian Sayin on Saturday. Both will be making their first career starts as their respective team’s QB1.
“Texas is going to have a good defense, so I’d be shocked if you saw wild with these two teams early in the game. The other thing I’d add about both these quarterbacks, I’d be very restrictive as far as throwing the ball between the hashmarks,” Meyer continued. “Your heart starts beating, it’s like that point guard that gets all excited and you know what happens, the ball keeps bouncing off the back of the rim. Why? Because he’s excited. It’s called adrenaline.
“Same thing with a quarterback, they overstride, the ball goes high. On the outside it’s an incomplete pass, punt the ball, play good defense, we’ll get the ball back. You throw that sucker over the middle high, you can lose a game.”
However both coaches ultimately decide to handle their respective former five-star quarterbacks on Saturday, Meyer will be onsite to nitpick and provide commentary as part of FOX Sports’ Big Noon Kickoff pregame show, which will be airing live throughout the day from Columbus.
