Imagine going through your normal college learning curve, but every time you trip, it becomes breaking news. That’s the price to pay for the Manning name on the back. What a lot of folks overlook is the curse that comes with it.

With Paul Finebaum away, guest host Cole Cubelic stepped into the captain’s chair for The Paul Finebaum Show and brought on college football expert Stewart Mandel of The Athletic to talk about the preseason hype ahead of SEC Media Days. The two got straight to the point about the upcoming Texas Longhorns season, specifically focusing on the crushing weight of the Manning last name and how the media hype has completely spun out of control.

“Texas falls under the category of overhyped to me,” Mandel said when Cubelic asked if the program was overhyped. “Now, no question, Sark upgraded their talent level, especially at the skill positions they have. They have two great running backs coming in. They obviously got Cam Coleman, who’s extremely talented, even if he’s been inconsistent, though.

“Arch Manning will play like the No. 1 pick. I do think he’ll be better, but if you watched him over the course of last season, those moments where he looked like the No. 1 pick were the minority. I think if the expectations were a little bit lower, if he had a different last name, people would say, ‘Hey, he has a chance to be an All-Conference quarterback this year,’ and everybody would be happy about that.”

Mandel didn’t hold back at all. Despite the Longhorns being ranked the second-best team in the preseason rankings by ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI), The Athletic insider straight up put Steve Sarkisian’s Texas Longhorns into the ‘overhyped’ category.

After ending the 2025 campaign at 10–3, including a Citrus Bowl victory over Michigan, Steve Sarkisian went all in this offseason, betting all his chips on Arch Manning’s last dance.

He brought in some of the best ballers available in the portal. Guys like wide receiver Cam Coleman, Hollywood Smothers (RB), Rasheem Biles (LB), Laurence Seymour (OL), and many more. Even with all those upgrades, Mandel feels the national expectations surrounding this team have crossed the line into being completely unrealistic.

The biggest issue, according to Mandel, is the “blanket assumption” everyone is making about Arch Manning.

Only because his jersey reads Manning on the back, he is trapped in an unfair ‘superstar or bust’ narrative. The general public has set the bar so absurdly high that a normal, highly successful All-Conference season won’t even be celebrated.

Mandel said that the current expectation is that Arch has to be, by far, the absolute best quarterback in the entire country, and if he falls even a little short of that impossible standard, people are going to label it a disappointment.

Mind you, he was not belittling Arch Manning whatsoever. The Longhorns got tons of talent on offense. But the media circus surrounding Arch Manning has created an artificial standard of success. And there’s no way out for Manning except by winning the natty or the Heisman!