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AUSTIN, TX – APRIL 18: Quarterback Arch Manning #16 of the Texas Longhorns walks onto the field during the Texas Longhorns Football Fan Day on April 18, 2026, at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, TX. (Photo by David Buono/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Around mid-summer each year, the hype around Texas football lives a bit louder than usual.
In 2025, the machine’s bar was set extraordinarily high as Texas marched out the team’s first-year starting quarterback Arch Manning each week, and who struggled early on last season. As many of us undoubtedly recall, Manning was a preseason favorite to win the Heisman Trophy last summer, even if he had yet to start an entire college season. Then… the Longhorns dropped a clunker of a game to Ohio State in Week 1—the first game back after the Buckeyes’ program won a College Football Playoff National Championship the previous season. There, he threw 17-of-30 for 170 yards, plus a lone touchdown and an interception.
Dear, Texas fans, you likely recall how the story of the 2025 college season ends.
For the Longhorns, a regular season dud of a winning season: 9-3.
While acute, the pain of missing the College Football Playoff still stings for some of us.
Yet this is no place for logic. Not in the final weeks of the offseason. Now, like clockwork, we again find ourselves at a familiar nexus of hype and reality; a comfortable place that seemingly keeps our dopamine flowing during the slow mid-summer weeks after the college baseball and softball seasons end (at least this year, the other foot-ball is a viewable option.)
Now a season into his college starter era, and with an arguably stronger skills squad and hardened offensive line to compliment Manning’s style of play, the latest heir of America’s football dynasty family is once again one of the highest-ranking (if not highest ranked) preseason predictions of who will take home college football’s most valuable player honor.
Boom or bust ahead? Let’s weigh our options…
Although Manning’s first season under center at Texas got off to a sluggish, awkward start, as a third-year player last season, the gunslinger would go on to throw for 3,163 yards, 26 touchdowns, and a stingy seven interceptions. He also rushed for 399 yards and contributed 10 touchdowns on the ground—a feature that helped keep opposing defensive fronts on their toes when the Longhorns needed either a big play or a lucky break, or both.
By November last year, Manning’s glow-up was evident.  
In fact, lowly sports bloggers, like ourselves, are riding that same confidence in our shot-in-the-dark predictions on how Manning’s returning season as starting quarterback plays out.
Alas, Texas fans, history is on our side. That’s likely most easily cited in relation to a seasoned quarterback’s wisdom on the field increases a team’s potential for success.
Math, in other words.
Case in point, the hype machine will continue its rattling this time of year, every year.
Manning is just its latest victim in Austin—and his family’s name doesn’t help.
Still, the SEC has rightfully made a man out of Manning after the incoming redshirt junior suffered through the gauntlet of guiding Texas through the league’s powerhouse squads.
The conference will only continue hardening Manning as a player. That’s inevitable.
(We can’t all have it as easy as Texas Tech, as our fearless leader Sarkisian might say.)
The difference between “confident” and “convinced” is more subtle than some realize.
As for expectations of Texas football in 2026, I’m “confident” the Longhorns have another talented team in the making, but I’m not “convinced” it should be written in stone just yet.
Anyway.
National championship or bust, folks.
Hook ‘em!
P.S. It’s not too late to call your dad if you forgot to call him yesterday.
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