Kirk Herbstreit answers whether Texas should bench Arch Manning

Kirk Herbstreit hesitantly commented that Texas' backup QB looked great in a brief stint Saturday as he debated the question of whether Steve Sarkisian should bench Arch Manning

ESPN College GameDay analyst Kirk Herbstreit / Shelley Mays / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

ESPN college football analyst and regular College GameDay host, Kirk Herbstreit, sat down with Joey Galloway for a video on Herbstreit's YouTube channel, where the two broke down what in the world has gone wrong for Arch Manning and the Texas Longhorns.

Steve Sarkisian's 2025 unit was thought to be his strongest yet with a Manning under center on the heels of consecutive College Football Playoff appearances. Alas, the team in burnt orange already dropped road games to Ohio State and Florida and haven't had their star QB nearly meet his lofty expectations.

Manning already rated low on our SEC quarterback rankings last week, which was partially a reflection of his pedestrian-to-poor stats across the board, but even via the eye test, he just hasn't looked good, at all. Which begs the question from Joey Galloway...

"Let me ask you a question," Galloway began. "In today’s world, with NIL, transfer portal the money all these things, could you bench ArchManning? Like is it even a possibility with the fallout that comes from that?"

Herbstreit certainly isn't terrified of the potential second option, that's for sure.

"I don’t know," he answered at first. "I saw Matthew Caldwell come in and throw an absolute strike. Like, when he came in, when Arch Manning’s helmet went off and he came in and just threw a laser, threw a dart, I was like, 'Can he throw one more ball?'"

After a quick back and forth, Herbstreit circled back to say that if Manning was benched, he's the type of kid who would likely handle it well, while the decision would be tough to argue with given the success led by Steve Sarkisian at Texas over the past couple of seasons.

"It’s a fair question," Herbstreit commented. "I think of all the guys that you would bench, he’d probably handle it the best, probably because of his family and his background. And it’s like, hey, you know, if you make that decision, we got to live by it and move on."

What's important is that Herbstreit trusts the guy handling this balancing act.

"I have a lot of respect for Sark," Herbstreit added. "I think we all do. I think Sark is a great coach. You know, this is a team that, by the way, has gone back-to-back Playoffs. They lost to Washington two years ago, lost to Ohio State a year ago. I think a lot of people thought, 'They finally got rid of Quinn Ewers. Now we got Arch. Now we go.'”

By the first weekend in October, Manning no longer looks like the magical upgrade guaranteeing the Longhorns a trip to the promised land. Instead, Texas might have to bank on yet another QB change.

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