Maintaining fame in college football is tough, especially for Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning, who carries a legendary last name. One month into the 2025 season, Manning has posted 1,449 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. But beyond the stats, a college football analyst has identified a concerning flaw in his gameplay this season.

On October 22, former New York Jets scout Daniel Kelly reshared Manning’s interview after their 13-16 victory against Kentucky. “Obviously, we want to play better on offense all around. Myself, I’d be the first to say that. But, really proud of the way we play as a team, special teams,” said Manning. But looks like Kelly is not happy with Manning’s chart this season. 

Kelly stated, “As a former NFL Scout, I evaluated every single snap Arch Manning took in 2023 and 2024 and one of the things I wrote about in that scouting report was his “fast paced tempo.” Cut to 2025, tempo is something that went missing from Manning’s syllabus.

As the former scout came with a sharp review, “I’ve evaluated every single snap he’s taken in 2025, and I’m not seeing that this season. He seems down. He sounds down. His energy level for the most part has seemed lower. His confidence level is lower in most of these games. Something is wrong.”

The scout then backed his claim with Manning’s stats. Back in the 2024 season, the Longhorns quarterback could finish off his throw within a time span of 2.74 seconds. However, in this season, Manning has taken more seconds to make a throw, increasing his time span to 3.08 seconds. Well, it’s just the average. 

As Kelly wrote, “In three of these games per PFF, it’s been 3.28 (Ohio State), 3.52 seconds (UTEP), and 3.49 seconds (Florida). He hasn’t looked like the same guy I put a preseason first-round grade on.”

Against Ohio State, Manning held the ball for too long and felt like a fish out of the water as he became inconsistent getting the ball out of his hand on time. 

It repeated in the Florida face-off as well when Manning came up with the longest time to throw of the season. On his nicest throw of the half, a smooth 22-yarder, Manning showed tidy mechanics after stepping up in the pocket, yet the hesitation in his release told the bigger story of his night.

Well, looks like Manning has too many things on his plate as he fights a tough battle in the Longhorns camp, 3x worse than his predecessor, Quinn Ewers. 

Quinn Ewers took a season to reach what Arch Manning endured in weeks

It has been only seven games into the season, and Manning has already been hit 60 times. Talking about Ewers’ stats? Steve Sarkisian’s former quarterback played 14 games last season, and it took him the entire season to be hit 60 times. So, one can fathom how the soil under Manning’s feet is hotter than the soil to the former Texas quarterback?

Being hit by nearly 300-pound defensive linemen is surely going to take a toll on Manning’s mental and physical health. Taking the Longhorns’ face-off against Kentucky, for example. Kentucky’s defense entered the Texas game with just seven sacks – and walked out with three more plus eight hits on Manning. That’s how ugly it went.

Talking about the blows that Manning took?

On one vicious play, linebacker Alex Afari Jr. blew past the O-line untouched and leveled Manning so hard his leg whipped up and clipped LB Afari Jr.’s helmet. But who would make Sarkisian understand?

The Texas Longhorns head coach continues to shield Arch Manning from negative reviews. In his quarterback’s defense, “The competitor in him, he’s grinding it out. Everything’s going on. He’s running the ball. He’s fighting. He’ll play better, but as I said, we need to play better around him.”

They have to get better. After all, against Kentucky, the offense could rack up only a total of 179 yards. This is hardly how Manning imagined his 2025 story unfolding.