Means-too-early mock draft aficionados beware: Texas quarterback Arch Manning is off the board in 2026.
Nicely, in all probability.
Sources have lengthy indicated it is unlikely Manning would depart Austin after only one season because the starter. It’d go towards his household’s historical past — each of his uncles, Peyton and Eli, stayed in faculty for 4 years — and the overall feeling contained in the Texas program.
Arch Manning’s grandfather warns NFL teams planning to tank for Texas QB ahead of 2026 draft
Brad Crawford
This week Arch’s grandfather, Archie, went on the record this week with Texas Monthly and made his knowledgeable prediction about whether or not Arch would declare for the 2026 NFL Draft:
“Arch is not going to try this. He’ll be at Texas.”
Grandad and grandson are shut. They textual content virtually each day. This probably is not grandpa taking pictures from the hip. But it surely’s necessary to notice that there is a great distance between now and January.
Perhaps Manning performs as much as a Heisman degree and has a authentic choice to make by way of the NFL. There’s additionally a risk Manning is again at Texas regardless in 2026 as a result of he is not prepared for a professional leap. Keep in mind, he is tried solely 95 passes in faculty so far with simply two begins. These across the program are extremely optimistic about what Manning can do that season. But it surely’s all hypothetical manufacturing till he reveals it for a sustained interval as QB1.
Let’s simply take the assertion at face worth, although. Let’s assume Manning returns to Texas for 2026. What does that imply for Texas and college football?
Texas stays a nationwide title favourite
Texas could have essentially the most helpful factor in college football come 2026: A senior quarterback (by years at school) who’s projected as a first-round choose. That alone makes the Longhorns nationally aggressive.
Then in case you dive deep into Texas’ roster, you can argue the game’s preseason No. 1 may very well be higher subsequent yr.
There are solely six seniors projected to begin for Texas in 2025, together with simply two (Cole Hutson, DJ Campbell) on offense. Lots can change with the draft — it is onerous to see All-American linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. again in Austin in 2026, for instance — however the basis of what’s a fairly younger Texas staff ought to return subsequent yr.
That concept rings very true when you think about Manning’s receivers. Just one upperclassman receiver (DeAndre Moore) is anticipated to even be in Texas’ rotation this season. Manning returning for 2026 would permit budding stars like Ryan Wingo and Emmett Mosley V to develop with him over the following two seasons, which is invaluable continuity.
Throw within the return of standouts like edge Colin Simmons or cornerback Kobe Black on the opposite aspect of the ball, and the Longhorns shall be loaded come 2026 with few, if any, main holes to plug.
Texas’ QB room transferring ahead
The idea Manning will keep for the 2026 season eliminates an enormous potential query for Texas this offseason and units up an intriguing QB scenario waiting for 2027.
First, Texas will not should be within the switch quarterback market in December. That might be a risk if Manning declares for the draft given the one two skilled arms on the roster (Manning and Troy switch Matthew Caldwell) can be gone.
Second, Manning opting to return units up an intriguing competitors between Trey Owens, Karle Lacey Jr. and Dia Bell in two years.
Owens is a big-armed former four-star recruit who noticed just a few snaps final season as a real freshman. Lacey, a four-star recruit from the 2025 class, was Mr. Soccer within the state of Alabama final yr. Then there’s Bell, a prime 10 participant within the 2026 class and somebody who, by 2027, shall be a redshirt freshman in Austin.
Will Owens, Lacey and Bell all be on campus come 2027? You by no means know within the switch portal period. If they’re, although, that would be the best quarterback battle within the sport.
How’s this for a hypothetical quarterback succession plan in Austin below Steve Sarkisian? Three years of former five-star recruit Quinn Ewers. Two years of former five-star recruit Arch Manning. Then no less than two years of Bell, who will virtually assuredly end this cycle as a five-star recruit.
No one is recruiting and managing their quarterback room higher than Texas in the meanwhile.
Imagn Photographs
A real famous person returns to the game
School soccer gamers are hardly ever crossover stars. There are only a few lightning rods like Johnny Manziel and Tim Tebow who seize the eye of these outdoors the faculty soccer bubble.
Arch is a kind of gamers. He is somebody your Good Morning America-watching mother may textual content you about.
Manning, largely because of his final identify, was the topic of nationwide debate speak reveals as a excessive schooler. His brother, Heid, informed me just lately there have been grownup autograph seekers tenting out Isidore Newman Excessive College throughout Arch’s junior yr. Manning was on Texas’ campus for lower than a month earlier than his misplaced scholar ID grew to become a viral sensation.
There’s faculty soccer well-known after which simply FAMOUS. Arch suits into the latter class. Him returning to the game generates a degree of basic curiosity in faculty soccer that simply is not often there outdoors of Deion Sanders.
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