Texas Football: New York Post makes laughable Arch Manning prediction

With the 2023 Texas football season just two weeks away from kicking off at home at DKR on Sep. 2 against the Rice Owls, the excitement is tangible on the Forty Acres. The college football season being so close to kicking off has also drawn the attention of the national media to the Forty Acres.

Not all the national media coverage is accurate or well-researched, though, regarding the Longhorns. A great example is a recent prediction from the New York Post and Tanner McGrath on Aug. 17.

This piece from McGrath and the New York Post predicted “Arch Manning leads Texas to the Big 12 Championship” this fall. This is no joke; that is the headline of this post of a piece that looks to be about breaking down the biggest Texas betting odds heading into the 2023 season.

New York Post continues trend of national media conjuring up their own narratives with Texas football and Arch Manning

We could point out many issues in this piece, but let’s start with the two most significant flaws.

First, Arch obviously isn’t the starting quarterback for the Longhorns heading into the 2023 season. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Quinn Ewers has a firm hold on the starting job a little more than halfway through fall camp.

If there is any position battle Arch is in at this point of training camp, it is with redshirt freshman quarterback Maalik Murphy for the backup job behind Ewers.

Second, if Texas does win the Big 12 Championship this season, it is most likely because of Ewers elevating his game in his second year as Texas’ starting quarterback.

Arch Heisman hype is ridiculous

One of the most unreal parts of this New York Post article, in a bad way, is the part about Arch’s Heisman odds. The fact that there is a discussion about Arch in the Heisman competition is ridiculous.

But there are some statements in this article that are laughable.

"So, I’ve been asked by many whether a Manning Heisman ticket has some legs.The path is there. If Ewers doesn’t perform for a second consecutive season, he’ll be on the hot seat, and Manning will be first in line to quarterback one of the nation’s most talented rosters."

If you want a good laugh, McGrath mentions that he finds an issue with Arch potentially not recording “enough starts or volume to compete with stat-sheet stuffers like Caleb Williams or Bo Nix”. Any reasonable person would stop themselves from writing this article as soon as they compare Arch to Caleb Williams and Bo Nix in the Heisman race this year.

National media continues to conjure up its own narratives surrounding Arch and Texas

While I wish I could say that the national media will stop making up narratives about Arch and the Longhorns this fall, it probably won’t stop anytime soon.