Desmond Howard Rips Texas Longhorns' Handling Of Arch Manning

It goes without saying that the college football world has had its eyes on Texas Longhorns QB Arch Manning more so than any other quarterback in the country over the last few weeks.

And for good reason, too. Manning came into the season as the most hyped quarterback in the recent history of college football, and has woefully underperformed throughout the first three weeks.

In fact, in his three starts, he completed just 55.3 percent of his passes for 679 yards and six touchdowns, with three interceptions. He also has a QBR of 49.6 - ranking him 89th in the nation in that category. He has also been visibly pressing, missing open receivers, and mechanically sloppy in the eyes of most quarterback experts.

As for the genesis of those issues, ESPN analyst Desmond Howard believes it starts and stops with the Texas coaching staff and their inability to recognize Manning's shortcomings.

Howard Rips Texas

Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning reacts after getting hit by San Jose State Spartans linebacker Taniela Latu | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

“With all the resources available to these players nowadays, I mean, they have quarterback coaches, they have mental coaches," Howard said on College GameDay. "He’s in Texas. They have all the resources available that any college football player can ask for. So you wonder, why is he still struggling? If it’s a mental thing, you would think that their coaching staff would have recognized this and they would have addressed it. If it’s the footwork, which all of us see on film, you would think that the coaching staff would have recognized this and addressed this."

To Howard's point, based on everything we saw in 2024, Manning's drop off from last season has been rather shocking.

But to suggest that the Texas coaching staff is at fault for not 'recognizing' or 'addressing' those issues in-game shows more of a lack of awareness of the situation than anything else.

Howard Is Overreacting

Texas Longhorns offensive lineman Trevor Goosby lifts up quarterback Arch Manning | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

It is well documented by Steve Sarkisian that Arch has been a different player in practice, both mechanically and mentally, than he has been in games, making these specific issues extremely difficult to diagnose and fix without seeing him in game action.

That is especially true considering the fact that last season in his 2.5 starts against UTSA, ULM and Mississippi State those issues were, for the most part, non-existent.

Manning has also shown signs of greatness already this season, such ass the second half of the loss to Ohio State, and in his five-touchdown outing vs. San Jose State. In other words, as bad as Manning has been at times, it seems Howard is taking far too much stock in Manning's bad performance in the first half against the Buckeyes, and against UTEP, while ignoring when he has had success.

And as a result, he seems to believe Texas' season is already over before it has begun.

“I just think he’s just a good quarterback," Howard said. "If his name was Charlie Brown, we would make fun of him, but we wouldn’t have these lofty expectations of him playing the quarterback position. I think he is who he is, what we see … We just have to let him be.

"You know, that’s gonna be a long season, though, for the Longhorns, because I think they had greater expectations. I’m not sure why, because he’s been in the system long enough that they know what they get [out of] him, but it’s gonna be a long season. They've got this game this week, and they have a bye, and then they jump into the SEC schedule, and it may get ugly.”

Of course, Manning needs to take a step forward before the Longhorns begin SEC play. That much is clear.

But to ostensibly say the team's season is over after Week 3, when they are sitting at 2-1 and had the ball in their hands with a chance to tie the game against the No. 1 team in the country in Week 1, seems to be a bit of an overreaction.

Texas will have its chance to prove Howard wrong, starting at 7 pm on Saturday vs. Sam Houston, before they travel to Gainesville after the bye week on Sept. 27.