The Texas Longhorns are the favorite to win the SEC heading into the 2025 season. There are plenty of good reasons why they are predicted to win the conference, but one of the reasons people point to most often is quarterback Arch Manning.
Manning will finally get to be a full time starter for the first time in his career, and that fact alone is good enough for many football fans to crown Texas over Georgia already. But is that fair?
Former Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray doesn’t think so.
”If you are so good… why in the hell are you not playing above a seventh round quarterback?”
Aaron Murray slams preseason hype for Arch Manning
In the above statement, Murray is referring to Manning being a backup to Quinn Ewers last year at Texas. Ewers had a solid season with Texas, but he was never anything special in the eyes of most college football fans.
That sentiment was backed up when Ewers was selected in the seventh round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
So knowing now that Ewers almost went undrafted this year, Murray is wondering why Manning is getting so much hype if he couldn’t play above him.
This statement isn’t 100 percent fair to make because Manning was the No. 1 quarterback coming out of high school. Manning also has a few games of experience under his belt when Ewers was hurt as well, and he did very well in those games. So there are concrete reasons for people to be excited about Manning heading into his first season as a full time starter.
But should people be crowning him as one of the top QBs in the SEC and country already? Probably not. There’s as good of a chance that Gunner Stockton will be as good as people think Manning will be, so at this point it’s impossible to say what will happen to either QB.
Regardless of if Manning is one of the best quarterbacks in the country or not this season, Texas will be a force to be reckoned with. But Manning’s play could be the difference between the Longhorns winning the SEC and falling short to Georgia again.