There's no consensus on how the Texas Longhorns will deploy Arch Manning against the Ohio State Buckeyes in Week 1.
Paul Finebaum believes it's going to be "Arch Madness" after the third-year signal-caller upsets the defending national champions at "The Shoe."
“Guess who? Arch ‘Madness,’” Finebaum said on SportsCenter, per On3. “It’s going to be Arch ‘Madness’ after the game. Manning leads the Longhorns to a smashing victory. I’ve been accused of being a little bit too high on Arch. I don’t think that you can be high enough on this young man. He is outstanding. I know the last name, we all do, but he is ready for this moment, and he is going to perform beautifully next Saturday. I can’t wait.”
Meanwhile, Josh Pate believes the Longhorns may scheme around Manning with the talent Steve Sarkisian and Kyle Flood have brought to the program in recent highly-rated recruiting classes.
“He doesn’t need to be a superhero,” Pate said. “This is not Xbox. It’s the real world. Steve Sarkisian, I was there in the spring, he said, ‘We built towards this year.’ Meaning they stacked their entire roster and built their entire roster of their guys to work around Arch Manning, to where it doesn’t need to be the Arch show. It needs to be the Texas show, just sort of featuring Arch Manning. That’s what I expect.”
Manning will be expected to deliver either way.
Winning Pate's way would probably create a new narrative that Sarkisian will have no problem vehemently fighting back against. It'd be considered more of a Buckeyes loss than a Longhorns win.
If Arch could look the part against the Buckeyes, Finebaum is admitting there'd be astroturfed coverage of the next great Manning.
You just know ESPN executives are hoping with every fiber in their being that an SEC guy has a Heisman-caliber showing during Big Noon Kickoff on FOX airwaves.