Arch Manning is a college football punchline right now. His failing to live up to expectations as the Texas Longhorns' QB1 has overshadowed Deion Sanders' struggles with the Colorado Buffaloes and Bill Belichick's Jordon Hudson dysfunction with the North Carolina Tar Heels.
And the teams at the top that can actually win the College Football Playoff, like the Ohio State Buckeyes, Penn State Nittany Lions, and a handful of other teams TBD.
Even while discussing Ohio State DL transfer Hero Kanu's sterling performance on the other side of the ball, Arch's name came up in Bucknuts' Garrick Hodge's check-in with former Buckeyes' performances from Week 3.
Hodge mostly focused on Kanu's seizing the opportunity, discovering new life in Power 4 football after finding it hard to get on the field in Columbus.
"Arch Manning might be failing to live up to expectations at Texas but certainly isn't. Kanu is establishing himself as one of the Longhorns' top defensive tackles early in the 2025 season, as he played 40 defensive snaps on Saturday, the most of any Texas defensive tackle. He recorded three total tackles and his first sack of the season in a 27-10 victory over UTEP. Despite not starting in the week one loss to the Buckeyes, Kanu seems to have carved out a permanent starting role for himself with the Longhorns," Hodge wrote.
Kanu is trending towards outpacing his career production with Ohio State for three years in just one year with Texas. It's hard not to be happy for a player who helped bring a CFP title to the Buckeyes' trophy case.
As for Arch, though, it's worth asking:
Did OSU break Arch?
Manning's first game in a major spotlight was in front of his biggest audience. 16.6 million people caught the broadcast. Starting during the program's first SEC matchup against the Mississippi State was one thing, but being the No. 1 team in the country and walking into the defending home's champs is another.
The 14-7 loss for the Longhorns at the "Shoe" was not a worst case scenario, but it was treated such after the sky-high expectations he carried coming into it.
Sure, Matt Patricia's defense hammered Manning in the defensive coordinator's Buckeyes debut. And that was with eight starters being replaced. But a road game against a fired up group with a chip on their shoulder having not beaten TTUN was always going to be a challenge. His team was in it the entire game.
Arch has been unspectacular, and it looks like he's in pain -- even if Steve Sarkisian has no interest in filling us in on his health, much like what happened with Quinn Ewers last year. But Texas has gotten the job done in their Group of Five tests, so there's little reason to worry just yet.
Ohio State didn't break Arch Manning. They may have roughed him up, though, and that's affecting his performance this season through the first month.