The college football world is waiting with bated breath to see Arch Manning lead the Texas Longhorns in 2025.
Most of it, anyway. Manning is a Heisman Trophy favorite before he even officially takes the reins from Quinn Ewers. He’s a trendy pick to go No. 1 overall in the 2026 NFL Draft. He shows up regularly inside top 10 rankings for quarterbacks in college football. But former Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray is approaching Manning’s debut season with a healthy bit of skepticism.
“If you are so good,” he said Friday during a radio hit on SiriusXM, “why in the hell are you not playing above a seventh-round quarterback?”
Murray said he is not yet sold on Manning being the generational quarterback talent he has been billed as. He alluded to former Texas starter Quinn Ewers, who played through his final season in Austin with a nagging oblique injury. It was previously reported as a strain, but after the season ended and Ewers turned his attention to the NFL, the injury was revealed to be a tear. He also battled an ankle injury while helping Texas to the SEC Championship Game and a College Football Playoff semifinal appearance.
Ewers had a down year by his own standards. Yes, he threw a career-high 31 touchdowns. But his completion percentage dipped from 69% down to 65.8%, his yards-per-attempt clip dropped a full yard, and he threw as many interceptions (12) as he had in the previous 2 seasons combined. He also took more sacks than ever before.
Despite 2 solid starts and an encouraging relief performance earlier in the year, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian kept Manning in a backup role and stuck with Ewers.
Some might consider the decision a sign of respect from Sarkisian to the NFL-bound quarterback who grew up in Texas and helped get the Longhorns back near the top of the sport.
Murray views it differently.
“I was a big fan of Quinn Ewers heading into the season. I thought Quinn did some good stuff at times last season, but let’s be honest, Texas had probably the second or third-best roster in America. Why were they not competing for a national championship? It’s because Quinn was holding them back. Quinn did not perform to the level that I thought he could.
“… If Steve Sarkisian knows what he’s doing and he knows how good their roster is … why was Arch not playing? That rubs me the wrong way a little bit. And then you watch the tape and, yeah, it looks good at times. I wouldn’t say it looks incredible. It doesn’t scream first-round talent off the bat.”
Can Manning get there? Sure. Again, we’ve only seen a handful of games. And none of those performances were against good or even average teams.
“But I need to see it first,” Murray continued. “Right now, I would have him middle of the pack in the SEC when it comes to quarterbacks.”
“If you are so good… why in the hell are you not playing above a 7th round QB?”@aaronmurray11 told @ESPNDari why he’s not as high on Texas QB Arch Manning as others. #SECThisMorning pic.twitter.com/xpzXl2gG92
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) May 16, 2025Aaron Murray questions Texas QB Arch Manning ahead of 2025 season Saturday Down South.
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