"He's every bit as advertised": Analyst holds Arch Manning to high praise ahead of the 2025 CFB season

The Arch Manning hype train is running a hundred miles an hour now that the spring practice has begun. In late February, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian announced the Manning prodigy as the Longhorns' QB1 in 2025.

Manning was recruited as a five-star signal-caller by Sarkisian in 2023 and has been waiting for his turn ever since. After Quinn Ewers decided to return for another year in 2024, Manning had to wait an extra year to take the QB1 spot.

Arch Manning comes from one of the most legendary families in football, which naturally means there is a lot of interest in how the Texas star performs. Many analysts are even comparing Manning to Florida Gators legend Tim Tebow, who is considered one of the greatest college football players.

An audience also predicts Manning to be overhyped and a bust, which analyst J.D. PicKell bluntly disagrees with. On his "The Hard Count" show on Tuesday, the On3 analyst said (35:30):

"Arch Manning, he's every bit as advertised. You imagine that? Imagine if that's the case. First of all, if that's the case. Rest in peace to all the Twitter scouts and all the Twitter quarterback evaluators who were telling us that Manning was only good because of his last name. That's why he got to Texas. That was never the case. But I mean, rest in peace to y'all and, you know, flowers to your loved ones."

Steve Sarkisian opens up about Arch Manning's work ethic during college football offseason

Arch Manning has been waiting for his turn for almost two years, and now that he finally has the chance, his coach, Steve Sarkisian, doesn't want to leave "any stones unturned."

“Now that we’ve kind of embarked on the 2025 season, I just continue to see a guy that’s taken it and is really trying to really go for it,” Sarkisian said. "He just doesn’t want to leave any stone unturned. He’s working at his craft.

“He’s working so hard in the offseason conditioning runs. He’s now setting up those voluntary throwing sessions with the receivers during the week or on the weekend. He’s breaking the team down. All those natural things that a quarterback has to do to instill belief in his teammates, to instill belief in the staff, he’s doing it."

Arch Manning started in two games when Ewers was out due to injury during the 2024 season, both of which the Longhorns won. In 2024, the 6-foot-4 Manning threw for 939 yards, nine touchdowns and two interceptions.