Oct 11, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) before the game between the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners at the Cotton Bowl. Oct 11, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) before the game between the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners at the Cotton Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
By Sam Neumann on

Arch Manning has heard the noise about his struggles this season, even when he’s tried his hardest not to.

He entered 2025 as the Heisman favorite and projected No. 1 NFL draft pick. Now he’s addressing the media circus around his performance — or lack thereof — including The Athletic’s piece that The New York Times shared with particularly brutal framing, calling him “synonymous with failure.”

“I feel like I try to do my best at blocking out the noise, and then you get 100 text messages, ‘Keep blocking out the noise.’ There must be a lot of noise,” Manning joked. “I try my best.”

That noise reached a crescendo last week when the Times shared The Athletic’s article on social media with particularly harsh framing, calling Manning’s season “one of the worst” in college football and declaring him “a man synonymous with failure.” The post united an otherwise fractured college football media in defense of the first-year starter, with those like Josh Pate and Emmanuel Acho calling the characterization unfair and premature.

Manning said he wasn’t aware of the specific article before being asked about it.

“Yeah, I didn’t know that,” Manning said of the piece penned by Will Leitch. “I guess I do now.”

But the Texas quarterback, whose family name carries decades of NFL excellence and media scrutiny, showed a measured perspective on the criticism that’s come his way as the Longhorns sit at 3-2 with losses to Ohio State and Florida.

“I mean, look, I wasn’t playing well and I’m gonna continue to get better,” Manning said. “Everyone has their own opinion. That’s what’s good about America, you get to have freedom of speech, so it doesn’t bother me.”

And it shows just how out of control the hype around Manning got. He came into the season not just as a highly-touted prospect, but as someone outlets like The Athletic had already anointed as the likely No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft before he’d taken a meaningful snap as a starter.

ESPN’s Paul Finebaum declared him “the best college football quarterback we have seen since Tim Tebow,” while the Wall Street Journal crowned him “the Biggest College Quarterback Prospect Ever.”

The expectations were never realistic. And when Manning showed the growing pains you’d expect from a first-year starter working behind a rebuilt offensive line, the same media ecosystem that built him up was quick to tear him down, all five games into his starting career.

The irony isn’t lost that Manning needed 100 text messages telling him to block out the noise to realize just how much noise existed in the first place. But his response to it all — accepting criticism, rejecting the overreaction, and focusing on improvement — suggests he might be better equipped to handle the Manning name’s burden than the media was to cover it responsibly.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann