Arch Manning was already a big name in the college football world before he replaced an injured Quinn Ewers in Texas’ win over UTSA last weekend.
Nearly 300 yards of total offense and five total touchdowns later and the Manning hype train is fully rolling. It gained even more speed when Steve Sarkisian officially named the former five-star recruit the starter for Texas’ matchup with Louisiana Monroe Saturday.
While Manning clearly has serious talent and is off to a strong start this season, not everyone is happy with the level of attention he’s getting.
The College Sports Only X/Twitter account shared a screenshot of ESPN’s Instagram page Thursday, which included seven of the last 12 posts being Arch-related.
“ESPN found its new Tim Tebow,” College Sports Only wrote.
The comment wasn’t meant as a compliment, as many tired of the amount of air time ESPN gave Tebow during his playing days, particularly when he was in the NFL and struggling to stick around.
“Incredible for a backup quarterback,” someone responded.
“I’ll take this over Colorado, if we’re being honest,” a second person added.
“All because of his last name,” a third person chimed in.
“Zion 2.0,” said someone comparing Manning to former Duke star Zion Williamson.
What will ultimately become of Arch Manning’s football career? We won’t know the answer to that for several years at least.
But if Cooper Manning’s son and Peyton and Eli’s nephew plays well again Saturday, it is only going to increase the amount of exposure he’ll get moving forward.
It also might make it extremely hard for Sarkisian to turn back to Ewers once the NFL Draft hopeful is healthy again.
Related: Breaking: Texas Announces Week 4 Starting Quarterback