Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning faced a media firestorm after the Ohio State Buckeyes beat his team in their Week 1 matchup, 14-7, at the "Shoe." The narrative is starting to turn around for the 21-year-old, though.
College Football HQ On SI's Alex Weber believes many are losing sight of the fact that Manning had the Longhorns within inches of tying the game and being in a position to beat the defending champion Buckeyes in Columbus.
"Plus, for all of his flaws, Manning didn't have Texas that far out of position for the win... at defending champion Ohio State. Remember, the Longhorns drove all the way down to the one-yard line on a drive but failed to punch it through on fourth down. Well, that's seven points the team could have had right there to even up the score at 14-14," Weber wrote.
"Even with the goal line stand, once Texas dropped into survival mode frantically trying to collect two touchdown scores before the fourth quarter horn sounded, Manning let the football rip with more confidence, and more importantly, a lot less fear.
"Because as Bode from Point Break once said, fear causes hesitation, and hesitation causes your worst fears to become realized. You could say that was a worst-case day for Arch Manning, and yet, he had a shot against the new No. 1 team in the nation on their home field."
Tom Brady also defended Manning, insinuating that losing to Ohio State could be a good way to motivate his great rivals Eli and Peyton's nephew.
"The blessing is there needs to be resilience built up in a quarterback as well," Brady told Cris Collinsworth during a Pro Football Focus interview, per Sports Illustrated. "Even though he didn't have his best game and they lost, if he uses this to his advantage, he's gonna be tougher for it. And he's gonna have a better next game because of it. I always felt like you've gotta deal with a lot of adversity from a quarterback standpoint to toughen you up to be the true leader for the organization.
"There's a long season to play out. Arch has years beyond this to still play in college if he wants, but it's gonna be up to him to see how deep he wants to dig within himself in order to be successful. There's nothing to show that he won't be that. He's been that way in high school, even last year. He's got a lot of good people around him that know exactly what to do."
Losing to the Buckeyes brought a lot of negative overreactions for Manning. It seems there's now an overcorrection, who doesn't look like a slam dunk future NFL franchise quarterback just yet, but has room to grow and earn first-round pick status again.
Of course, Manning could end up looking like a cornerstone against SEC defenses, proving Ohio State's No. 1 defense is a result of Ryan Day's culture, regardless if Jim Knowles or Matt Patricia is in charge.