Despite all the pre-season hype that he and the Texas Longhorns are receiving, not everyone is sold on Arch Manning and the Texas Longhorns.
One of those people is former ESPN college football analyst David Pollack. Pollack is not as ready as everyone else to jump on the star quarterback’s bandwagon, and he explains why on the See Ball Get Ball podcast.
“Do I think Arch is a proven commodity that I’m ready to throw my hat in the ring and go, ‘Bro, Heisman ceremony.’ No, I’m not there yet. I know some people are,” he said. “If you say the name, I should be there. Like, what else does he have to prove? If you’re a Manning, you’re pretty great at the quarterback spot. There’s some pretty good history there.
“I’m not worried about him on a whiteboard. He’s probably been on a whiteboard and probably been calling audibles at the line of scrimmage since he was two. I mean, he’s just probably been doing that his whole life, and he knows how to do it.”
Oh, Pollack wasn’t done. He says if Manning was that much better than last year’s starter, Quinn Ewers, then why didn’t he start over him?
“The only thing that just kind of stays in my small, little brain is Texas was so close, such an elite defense a year ago, and Quinn Ewers was meh. I just feel a little bit in my head, man, like if he was that much better, he was that great — am I crazy — but I just think he would have played? I think you pull the trigger and go try to win a national championship because the defense held Ohio State to 21 points.”
The times that Manning did start, he looked good. He threw for 583 yards and four touchdowns in his two starts, so maybe Pollack was right. We shall see soon if Manning lives up to the hype.