Arch Manning Finally Starting to Get Some National Respect

Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning has been the most critiqued and over-analyzed player in college football by a country mile.

To a certain degree, that is understandable. After all, thanks to the national media, the casual fan was indoctrinated to believe he would immediately become the best college quarterback we have seen since Cam Newton, Tim Tebow, or Vince Young.

As a result, since he had a handful of rough outings in his first season as a starter, people began to call him a bust, a flop, and any number of other disparaging things as he tried to get his feet wet in his first season as a starting quarterback.

Now, after the past two games in combination with a stellar performance against Oklahoma, Manning seems to be truly hitting his stride.

And the national media is taking notice.

Arch Manning is Finally Earning National Respect

Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning passes the ball during the fourth quarter against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

On Wednesday morning, CBS Sports released their Top 50 quarterback Power Rankings, launching Manning all the way up to No. 18, after being unranked in the previous edition of the poll.

"Manning's meteoric rise this week is a nod to his steady performance in a desperately needed win over a top-10 Vanderbilt team," CBS Sports wrote. "It was his second straight 300-plus-yard, three-touchdown passing performance in an SEC victory. It also came after Manning spent the week in concussion protocol. The redshirt sophomore is blossoming at the right time."

This is all well and good, and nice to see from a national outlet.

That being said, CBS Sports is a little late to the party.

Even before Manning's explosive Mississippi State performance, he was completing 60.3 percent of his passes for 1,449 yards and 12 touchdowns with five interceptions. He has also rushed for 193 yards and five more scores. And he had scored 17 of the 21 offensive touchdowns the Longhorns have managed this season.

That was as many as Joey Aguilar and Gunner Stockton, and it's more than some of the SEC's top other top QB's such as Beau Pribula, Garrett Nussmeier, John Mateer, Trinidad Chambliss, LaNorriss Sellers, and DJ Lagway.

Now, after throwing for a career-high 346 yards and three scores against Mississippi State, followed up by 328 yards and three ore touchdowns against Vanderbilt, Manning has brought his total to 2,123 yards and 18 touchdowns through the air and six more touchowns on the ground.

Those 24 total touchdowns are tied for the second-most touchdowns by a quarterback in the SEC with Diego Pavia, and only behind Arkansas' Taylen Green. He is also fifth in passing yards, eighth in yards per attempt, and eighth in the conference QB rating. He also has more total touchdowns than Heisman front-runners like Ty Simpson and Julian Sayin.

The scary thing for the rest of the country and college football to think about is: Manning is really just getting started.