What Arch Manning redshirt rumors mean for Texas QB battle

Former Texas football legend Vince Young was discussing the Longhorns and Arch Manning this week and revealed some interesting info about a possible redshirt. 

It’s kind of crazy but we just can’t seem to get enough of the Arch Manning talk, can we?

Even after the five-star nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning announced his commitment to the Texas football program in June, Manning has still been a hot topic of conversation.

For starters, his commitment started a tremendous run of recruiting for the Longhorns, who added verbal commitments from multiple five-stars as they surged into the 247 sports team recruiting rankings for the 2023 class.

Then, Arch Manning became the topic of discussion again this week when long-time college football recruiting analyst Mike Farrell said Manning was overrated and that if his last name wasn’t Manning, he wouldn’t be rated as the No. 1 overall recruit.

I don’t know about that part, given all the attention that Texas football, Georgia, Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Florida, and other programs paid to Manning, but another Texas QB — a former one in Vince Young — had more interesting comments about Manning.

The specific one that’s interesting to me is that Young is hearing Manning could redshirt according to what he told ESPN’s First Take:

"“I really feel like Arch has a great opportunity. One of the things that I am hearing is that he is going to redshirt. That’s going to help out a lot so you can understand how to travel with the team, get the feel of the fans, the university. So, when you have those types of things and you take a year off like when I played with Coach [Mack] Brown, I redshirted. And I feel like that redshirt year helped me understand how to be a quarterback at the University of Texas, and then what you go through, traveling and things like that.”"

What redshirt rumors could mean about the current QB battle

Some Texas fans might worry about what a redshirt year could mean about Manning’s talent but it would probably be more of a reflection of Texas landing the top-ranked QBs in 2022 and 2023.

Quinn Ewers was the No. 1 QB in the 2022 class before re-classifying and going to Ohio State for his freshman season in 2021. He transferred and ahead of his sophomore season, he’s expected to battle Hudson Card for the starting job.

All signs are pointing toward Ewers being the guy and the rumors of a redshirt year for Manning only make that seem even more likely.

In an ideal world, Ewers would play this season and next for the Longhorns, before Manning could take over in the 2024 season.

Arch Manning will be eligible for the NFL draft after 2025, so the Longhorns might only get two seasons with him as a full-time starter anyway, which is why the redshirt talk is sort of irrelevant.

Manning can also play four games and still redshirt and you know Texas football fans will want to get a glimpse of him, so I’d expect to see Manning on the field in 2023. But if Ewers is as good as advertised, it makes sense to save him until 2024.