Another week, another Texas game, and another underwhelming afternoon from Arch Manning. The Longhorns’ QB1 posted 11-of-25 for 114 yards with one touchdown and one interception in a 27-10 win over UTEP. A game that should have been a runway for the preseason No. 1 to flex, not grind. The box score tells a mixed story. Two rushing touchdowns and 51 yards on the ground alongside a string of 10 straight incompletions and an end-zone pick, while the home crowd’s boos showed just how far the offense is from its ceiling. Nobody is asking Arch to be his best self every snap, but 114 passing yards against a heavy underdog is not the bar for a quarterback guiding a supposed title favorite through “get-right” September. 

One powerful voice said the quiet part out loud and did it with receipts. “Speaking of quarterbacks, that week one loss on the road, Sark says you can’t be a quarterback till you get booed off the field. So now Arch Manning’s a quarterback,” ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt cracked. He then started hammering the numbers: “114 yards against UTEP.”

Van Pelt laid out the context fans have circled for months: San Jose State, UTEP, and Sam Houston at home as rhythm-builders, then Gainesville on Oct. 4, a road step-up that will test everything from processing to poise. The frustration was tethered to a box score and a schedule that leaves little room for denial about where the passing game sits after three weeks. The skepticism went deeper, too, into the summer crescendo and the reality of fall Saturdays. “I don’t know what the deal is with Arch Manning. I just know that all that stuff in the summer, I’m not right about a lot, but I was like, can we see it before we say it? Like, I don’t know. It’s not great at the moment,” he said. And then came the cut that stung because it echoed the hype machine: “I was told he was Jesus.”

That last line is a mirror because the preseason drumbeat was loud, the expectations were massive, and now the tape is forcing a reset against the standard of a top program’s QB1. The boos in the first half were the soundtrack to that recalibration, but the 11-for-25 tells the story in ink. The timetable was blunt, too, and fair. “We had those as get-right games… Then they go to Florida,” Pelt said, before adding, “You get one more game against a team you’re going to beat by default, and then you go to Gainesville.”

That’s the calendar, with Sam Houston on deck and a trip to the Swamp immediately after, where sloppy reads and shaky rhythm will be punished in front of a snarling crowd. Well, witnessing the Gators’ form, it won’t be surprising if Texas wins that game without breaking a sweat. But the point is, Oklahoma, A&M, and Georgia won’t even wait a jiffy to punish bad quarterbacking. And there’s also the upset machine, Vandy. The point is to set the bar where Texas says it wants to live and to measure performance against opponents that were supposed to make things look easy.

There’s time, and he knows it, but the clock is ticking. Manning’s own postgame refrain, “I’ve got to play better… I know I’m better than this” is the only acceptable response after a poor display at home, because the schedule won’t wait for the light to come on. Clean the footwork, get the eyes right, trust the progression, and hit the layups before chasing explosives. Do that next week, or Gainesville will turn a September wobble into an October problem. The task is clear, and so is the standard for a quarterback leading a contender, because after one more “should win,” the Swamp will tell the truth.

Tapping the brakes, not slamming them

The hype train has wobbled long enough for a few trusted voices to ease off the throttle, and the reasons are straightforward. DawgNation’s Kaylee Mansell didn’t flinch when saying, “My bold take is Arch Manning does not make the Heisman Trophy ceremony.” Chris Doering echoed the temperature check, saying he’d “cut” Arch Manning in a Start/Bench/Cut with DJ Lagway and Garrett Nussmeier because those two are simply more proven right now. After getting rattled by Ohio State, Arch Manning came out blazing against San Jose State, with 153 yards and four touchdowns in the first 18 minutes, before a first‑half interception pulled the conversation back to earth. And then the UTEP game happened.

Paul Finebaum, meanwhile, is urging perspective. “To doing things that we expected of him, and ultimately, Arch is going to be tested when they have a good opponent, which they won’t for another couple of weeks. I suspect he’ll be a lot better,” he said. It’s a recalibration from someone who once leaned into the “best player” label in the post‑Tebow vacuum. The message is about stacking growth, beating who’s in front, and letting real judgments land when the schedule tightens. That’s less a retreat from optimism than a reminder that September fireworks aren’t the finish line; they’re the runway to it.

So, overrated or too soon to tell? The fairest answer lives in the middle. The surname guarantees glare. The summer noise inflated urgency. And the film still shows why the buzz exists: arm talent, poise in rhythm, and functional legs to stress defenses. But the job now is the unglamorous stuff.