Urban Meyer, former head coach with national championships at Florida and Ohio State, has questioned the expectations being placed on Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning ahead of the 2025 college football season. Despite significant attention from odds makers and media analysts predicting Manning as a Heisman Trophy candidate and possible first overall pick in the NFL Draft, Meyer expressed skepticism regarding Manning’s achievements to date.
“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.”
Meyer further addressed how both Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian and Ohio State coach Ryan Day should approach their game plans for Saturday’s upcoming matchup between Texas, ranked No. 1, and reigning national champions Ohio State, ranked No. 3. Both teams will be starting redshirt freshmen at quarterback: Manning for Texas and Julian Sayin for Ohio State.
“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.”
Meyer will join FOX Sports’ Big Noon Kickoff pregame show live from Columbus to provide commentary during Saturday’s contest.
Arch Manning enters his third year at Texas after starting two games last season in place of Quinn Ewers due to injury. In his redshirt freshman campaign, Manning recorded 1,043 total yards and 13 touchdowns in 10 appearances.
Manning is part of an established football family; his uncles Eli Manning and Peyton Manning are both Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinees.
