It might be too soon to call Arch Manning a total flop, but the conversation surrounding his talent has quickly soured. 

Joel Klatt and Colin Cowherd discussed Manning’s early struggles on Wednesday’s episode of “The Herd.”

“Arch has not played well at all,” Klatt said. “Texas has not played well at all. They have not protected him at all. When they do protect him, he doesn’t throw the ball well.”

In his first season as the Texas Longhorns starting quarterback, Manning has completed 60% of his passes for 1,151 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions. The Longhorns are 0-2 against Power-4 conference teams. They lost their opening game against No. 1 Ohio State, 14-7, and were upset by Florida (2-3) 29-21 last week in Gainsville. 

At 3-2, without a quality win, Texas dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25, and is hanging on to the College Football Playoff conversation by a thread.

“It’s a dangerous week,” Klatt said. “Their backs are against the wall. They’ve got to win to keep themselves alive in the College Football Playoff conversation.”

That’s not going to be easy as Texas is hosting No. 6 Oklahoma on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET in the much-anticipated Red River Rivalry. Fortunately for the Longhorns, the Sooners will likely be without their star quarterback John Mateer, who is recovering from a hand injury. 

However, Klatt still doesn’t like the Longhorns chances. 

“If you look what [Texas] has done against FBS competition, it’s like nothing,” Klatt said. “So there’s no evidence that would lead you to believe that this is going to turn around all of a sudden… And they’re going up against a team (Oklahoma) that has a better defense against Florida.”

All the blame for the Longhorns’ struggles has been directed toward Manning, and peculiarly to Cowherd, away from Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian. 

“In a weird way, the pressure is off Sark,” Cowherd said, “because I think the public thinks ‘you can’t bench a Manning.'”

Klatt agreed, but pushed back on that point a bit, saying that Sark’s not out of the clear. 

“The narrative is starting to build for Sark, around those big games, that he does not win those big games,” Klatt said. 

He referenced the Longhorns losses to Ohio State and Florida this season as evidence. However, he felt they could have played better in the 2024 CFP quarterfinals, when they eked out a 39-31 win over No. 4 Arizona State in double overtime.

So, if the losses continue to pile up, Sarkisian might have to make a tough decision, and do what the public thinks he won’t: bench Arch Manning.

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