Arch Manning and Texas have been living under a microscope for weeks, and Paul Finebaum isn’t ready to conclude just yet. Appearing on The Matt Barrie Show, the ESPN analyst offered a measured take on where the Longhorns stand as they enter October unbeaten.
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“I just think that’s who they are,” Finebaum said. “I think the best advice on Texas is don’t make any rash judgments, because the fact that they are entering October undefeated is a pretty good accomplishment.”
“It has been a tough watch, but that has somewhat been typical of Arch Manning’s career,” Finebaum continued. “He’s not the player that we all dreamed he was going to be, the flawless Payton and Eli Manning-type QB, but he is tough.”
Barrie had pushed Finebaum to pick a side on the Longhorns’ ceiling. “Texas is the number one team in the country, and I want to go two ways with this,” Barrie said on his show. “Either Texas goes into a hostile environment, gets the win, and moves on, or Texas gets out alive, and we’re still not sure if they’re a bona fide number one. I can’t choose, Paul, because I think what they did was remarkable. But also, I don’t know, where do you stand on Texas?”
This all ties back to the biggest question hanging over Manning lately: how he’s handled himself since the Holly Rowe thing blew up. Finebaum said he actually liked how Manning came across after the Tennessee game, and he pushed back on people saying the kid’s been acting robotic in front of the cameras.
His point was pretty simple. Manning isn’t interested in answering questions with obvious answers. But when someone actually asked him something worth answering, he didn’t dodge it. He just said he played terribly, and Finebaum thought that was a genuinely honest thing to say.
The backdrop to all this traces back to Texas’s comeback win over Ohio State on September 12, when Manning laughed off a question about an AI-generated video showing Steve Sarkisian slapping Rowe, calling it “hilarious.”
The comment sparked days of backlash, prompting Manning to apologize to Rowe directly on Instagram. Rowe accepted, and both said they would move forward with mutual respect.
Since then, Manning’s public demeanor has drawn interest from multiple directions. Jason Whitlock argued the saga changed him entirely, writing on X that the ordeal stripped away Manning’s personality and left him wanting nothing to do with reporters.
Rowe’s ESPN colleague Chris Fowler pushed back on that framing, defending her character and calling her one of the hardest workers in the business.
Finebaum, for his part, has repeatedly sided with Manning throughout the saga, placing the blame on the media members who put him in that position in the first place.
Speaking on his own show days earlier, he argued that reporters made themselves look foolish by lobbing softball questions and then criticizing Manning’s flat answers, suggesting the coverage said more about the people asking the questions than the quarterback answering them.
Whatever the noise around Manning says about his personality, the results haven’t changed: Texas is still undefeated. As the Longhorns head toward Red River and the rest of a tough schedule, that may end up mattering a lot more than how he handles a press conference.