Nobody had a better redemption arc than Arch Manning in all of college football last season. After getting dragged through the mud throughout the first half of the year, doubted and clowned all over the internet, the Manning QB surprised the college football world and more with his Heisman-esque performance in the second half of the season. The turnaround was so convincing that media powerhouse On3 fully bought in on his rise.

On February 11, On3 and Ari Wasserman released their top 10 QBs heading into 2026 and delivered good news for Arch Manning by putting him at the top of the food chain, even above 2025 Heisman finalists Dante Moore and Julian Sayin. And honestly, it makes perfect sense if you recap his season.

Arch Manning’s 2025 season was the definition of a tale of two halves. The former five-star started his first full year as the Texas Longhorns QB with some serious growing pains, including a 14-7 loss to Ohio State where he really struggled to find his receivers. For a minute there, people were wondering if he was even meant to be quarterback, especially after he had some questionable games against UTEP and Florida.

But man, did he turn it around in the second half of the season. The leap of faith happened during the Red River Rivalry against the top 10 defence Oklahoma team. Arch played super smart, mistake-free football to lead Texas to a 23–6 win, completing 77.8% of his passes with zero turnovers.

From that point on, he looked like a totally different player. He went from throwing 5 interceptions in his first five games to just 2 picks over the final eight.

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November is when Manning’s gene started to click. The Longhorns out-played No. 9 Vanderbilt 34–31. The Longhorns outplayed No. 9 Vanderbilt 34–31. Nobody expected Arch to ball out since he was just coming back from an injury. Instead, he went out and threw for 300+ yards and two touchdowns. He had his breakout game against Arkansas, putting up a career-high 389 passing yards and accounting for six total touchdowns (four passing, one rushing, and even one receiving).

The Longhorns played their best game against undefeated No. 3 Texas A&M Lone Star Showdown. In front of 103,000 DKF field, Arch Manning won the hearts by ruining Aggies’ perfect season and knocking them out of the SEC title game with a gritty 27–17 win. It was their third win of the season against a top-10 opponent, the first team to pull that off since LSU back in 2019.

After getting snubbed from the playoffs in favour of Bama, the Longhorns punished Michigan for it in the Citrus Bowl. Manning racked up 376 total yards, including 221 through the air and a career-high 155 on the ground. He became the first bowl quarterback since Lamar Jackson to record 150+ rushing yards while throwing and running for two touchdowns each. His 60-yard touchdown run was so smooth it had people comparing him to Texas legend Vince Young.

Looking ahead, Manning is currently the betting favorite to win the 2026 Heisman Trophy at +750 odds. The Longhorns are not taking any prisoners or giving anyone the benefit of the doubt for the 2026 season. So they went out and brought in the No. 1 receiver in the portal, Cam Coleman, to let Arch Manning rip it. All in all, Texas is the place to be in 2026.

With great expectations comes even greater misery as the price of failure. Arch Manning knows a thing or two about going face to face with pressure when it comes to his world.

Cooper Manning opens up about the emotional toll after the season-opener loss

It didn’t take much time for even Texas fans to turn on Arch Manning. After the 14–7 loss, Manning became the poster child for the so-called “hate club” in the college sports world. Although Arch handled it in the best way possible, his father, Cooper Manning, shared his perspective on the criticism his son received.

Cooper felt that the reaction from people was bigger than it should have been.

“I think being a parent of someone who’s being critiqued on every little move is definitely a challenging spot,” Cooper said. “There’s a lot of people in this sports world that have opinions, and there’s only a small portion of them that are qualified to have them or that I would respect listening to, so you gotta pick your spots carefully. That goes both ways when they’re saying nice things, you know that can flip on a day or a dime.”

To prevent that from online misery, Cooper now tries to avoid reading too much of the comments because it helps him feel less stressed. Cooper was proud of how Arch acted. Arch stayed calm and confident, even when things were not going well. He kept working hard and got better each week. Cooper said as a parent, end of the day, all he can do is support his son and tell him to keep going. Maybe that’s the cost of being a Manning.