With Quinn Ewers set to come back for the Texas Longhorns against the Oklahoma Sooners, Arch Manning’s stint as fill-in starter is over. But what an impression the redshirt freshman made on the college football landscape.
On Fox Sports‘ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt weekly appearance on the Herd with Colin Cowherd, both Klatt and Cowherd agreed Manning could start for all but a handful of schools.
“He probably doesn’t start at Colorado and Texas. And that’s it. Maybe Alabama because of Jalen Milroe.” — Joel Klatt
Klatt think Manning will be a big part of the future of football.
“I think that the future of football is so bright. In ten years … we’re going to talking about an incredible NFL matchup between Arch Manning and Dylan Raiola. There are some young players in college football, we’re going to watching these guys for a long time. Manning is one of them. The young players in our sport right now are incredible and it makes me incredibly excited for the future of our sport.” — Joel Klatt
Klatt believes the emergence of Manning makes it a given Texas will be in the national title hunt.
“Ewers is their starter and he’s going to be their starter and they want him back and he’s their leader. But Arch solidified them as a bonafide national championship contender because not it doesn’t matter if their quarterback stays healthy. They’re still a premier team in the country with him at quarterback.” — Joel Klatt
The discussion turned to the unique situation of an elite QB waiting his turn instead of transferring. Klatt believes it was part of the Manning family’s plan all along.
“That family … they understand two truths about developing quarterbacks for the long run. One is, don’t play too early. In particular in college because you can be ruined. So he want there (Texas) with the objective to develop for a couple of years without being the starter under a guy that’s going to teach him an NFL style system that will be good for him long term. That’s Steve Sarkisian. So that’s No. 1. No. 2 will be the more reps that you get in college the better your success will be in the NFL.” — Joel Klatt