From guest columnist Richie Whitt: After a highly pressured, disappointing season, Texas quarterback Arch Manning is poised to lead the Longhorns into the playoffs and win the Heisman Trophy.
From guest columnist Richie Whitt, who first published this piece on his Whitt's End Substack ...
In Texas, nothing soothes 100-degree temperatures like the refreshing breeze of Week 0.
It’s only August, but this weekend the calendar unofficially flipped to Football. Our long national nightmare will be over.
Get ready for 24 consecutive weekends with built-in plans. Cue Hank Williams Jr.: “Are you ready for some football?!”
This college football season will have a decided “local” flair, with six teams in the Top 25 including Texas (5), Texas A&M (8), Oklahoma (10), Texas Tech (12), SMU (19) and Houston (23).
If you’re looking for the Game of the Year you won’t have to wait long. The Longhorns host No. 1-ranked Ohio State on Sept. 12 in Austin. Bold prediction: Texas wins, and the game launches Arch Manning’s Heisman Trophy season.
It’s not that big of a stretch, considering the ’Horns are ranked 5th and Arch has the pre-season second-best Heisman odds.
Here’s why I see it being a Burnt Orange year in college football:
*Expectations on the highly-recruited Arch were irrationally high. Redact his name, and you’d consider him a highly successful quarterback. As a starter in Austin he’s 12-3 with 35 touchdowns, only nine interceptions and a bowl win.
*20 of the last 26 Heisman winners are quarterbacks, so he plays the right position. And he enters as a leading candidate, behind only C.J. Carr (Notre Dame) and ahead of Trinidad Chambliss (Ole Miss) and Dante Moore (Oregon).
*Texas plays high-profile games against Ohio State and OU, so there will be no shortage of visibility. There is no such thing as an easy schedule in the SEC, but the Longhorns avoid Georgia and Alabama. Their toughest road games are at LSU and A&M.
No doubt Manning has the talent - and pedigree - to the best player in college football. Without the first-year-starting pressure, he will be untethered … unleashed.
He ended last season strong, averaging 285 passing yards with 14 touchdowns and just two interceptions in the last six games. He also ran for five touchdowns in that span, and amassed 155 yards on the ground in the bowl win over Michigan.
Equally important, Texas is adding the second-best receiver in the nation in former Auburn star Cam Coleman to give Arch a bona fide No. 1 target. Last season’s leading receiver, Ryan Wingo, is also back.
In the 2026 Arch Manning will be finally worth the wait … and the hype.
