Why Texas QB Arch Manning Showed SUPERSTAR UPSIDE in 2024 Debut

the Texas Longhorns had a game against Colorado state which ended up in a blowout that ultimately allowed Arch Manning to get some snaps and today we're going to talk about this guy's performance we're going to watch some of the tape because I got access to the tape and it's absolutely incredible just a really really good day for Manning literally from the first play this guy came in he threw a 40 yard pass to jonte cook uh cook did catch the ball and he did ultimately run and pick up most of those yards but the read Within the play the you know fact that this guy actually read not to throw it to the option right in front of him I mean this was a designed bootleg towards the right the tight end was open the tit you know if hit early enough would have probably picked up like two or three yards and for Manning that's not good enough so the guy kept his eyes down field and he ended up hitting his wide receiver cook who caught it and took it ultimately for 40 yards to me that play was absolutely incredible by Arch Manning but what's crazy with Manning is he had a lot of really really good reads he had a lot of really nice plays and we're going to get into all these different plays man I'm excited for this one so Manning did take a total of 26 naps uh he played a total of four drives the fourth drive doesn't really count cuz he just need the need the ball right since he just run the clock out uh the first two drives ended up in touchdowns and then the third drive he did have his one and only incompletion on third down but I do want to talk about just kind of how the game went and we'll start right away with that 40 yard pass so I felt like it was a really really good decision nice pass cook did a great job to be able to kind of take it um the second play was a handoff the third play was kind of interesting because you know Manning is is uh one of those guys that's very smart he's one of those quarterbacks that knows how to play quarterback he's learned obviously from some of the best quarterbacks we've ever seen in the you know honestly on planet Earth one of the the best quarterbacks right but you know just take a step back you know Arch Manning had a play in which he tried snapping the football right he essentially clapped he was calling for the ball to get snapped and the ball actually hit the tight end going in motion and the ball was a fumble now he had the awareness to be able to recognize that and he found the football and he jumped on top of it ultimately saving you know the Texas offense from uh you know having a turnover uh this was his the third play right was literally his third opportunity he had to show us kind of what he had and it to me looked like it was some sort of designed pass but uh on that third play you saw that he snap you know clapped his hands he wanted to get the ball and he ultimately wanted to snap the football and uh the the play resulted in a fumble so what's interesting about that is that's a learning opportunity for Manning you know I'm sure he's done this play in the past but in a live game a live environment you got fans yelling and screaming you got offensive lineman trying to block and recognize the mic and there's just so much stuff that's kind of going on right so uh Manning clapped his hands the ball ended up hitting the guy going in motion it's not a huge deal but it is a learning opportunity for Manning I think it's one of those plays where it's really really not a huge deal but we do want to be able to recognize that there are things this guy will have to improve on as he kind of goes forward but again there were a lot of really really good things including the very next play which ended up being a touchdown now I absolutely love what happens within the course of this play I love the fact that his initial read wasn't there or he didn't like what he saw and then from there he ended up climbing the pocket rolling to the right and then more than that he kept his eyes downfield right I don't know exactly if he looked at any of theer options downfield but he did also see uh he had another Wide Receiver right and this wide receiver kind of went in motion before the play he saw that this wide receiver was open uh and he ended up just throwing it and Silas Balden caught the pass and he jumped in Into The End Zone it was still really really good play but I want to talk about this play a little bit more so this play was a spacing concept designed to the left so you can see Arch Manning is going to take the snap he's going to look over there towards the left the spacing concept is interesting because instead of stopping from the tight end the tight end actually turned it into a corner route so I'm not sure if this was designed to essentially be that but it's a really good play call by Texas and I would say that Arch Manning did have an opportunity to throw the ball if he wanted to in the corner to his Ted end but I also do recognize that there's a guy that's kind of playing it underneath and you don't really know is this guy going to actually take that Ted end or is he not and the thing with football is the window of opportunity shrink right you have like half a second to make a decision you got to go forward right so you don't make that pass you got to go forward and that's exactly what he did and to me it's not a huge deal right the fact that he didn't actually throw that pass uh because regardless he made the right decision not to throw an interception he made the right decision you know if if in that moment he decides he is going to take that throw and the guy underneath actually does drop back that's potentially an interception so uh to me it was a great job by by Manning to recognize that you know he kind of you know stepped up ran to the right as the Paca was kind of breaking down and as he's running towards the right he kept his eyes downfield he was able to find his his wide receiver he threw it to his wide receiver and the best part of this play was just how you know he knew this was going to be a touchdown so he kind of just ran off you know ran towards the sideline as he kind of made that pass to me that was a really really solid overall play by Arch Manning I think these are the type of plays that we expected from Manning as he came out of uh High School these are the type of plays that we knew he could make in high school and these are the type of plays that he'll make as he you know going into next year takes over that job for Texas right to me that was a really really good play but I would make the argument that the next play right so that one ended up in a touchdown that the end of the first drive that he had the second drive right literally the fifth play of the game that Manny was in the game um the first play of the second Drive phenomenal read if you guys ask me so there's a couple of things to really recognize with this play and one of the things you got to recognize is the defense right now looks to be in a cover three shell so what that means is there's two types of defenses that most teams run out of this so the first is going to be either a cover three or a cover one based off the alignment and you're going to put this wide receiver in an orbit motion so essentially what that means is if the defender follows the wide receiver you know it's man-to-man coverage but in this instance they don't actually follow the wide receiver and instead all the guys just shift down one assignment so you can see right away so this is in in fact not a cover one manto man defense Instead This is a cover three defense so right away right Manning is going to recognize as this guy goes into motion that this is not manto man defense instead this is this is zone defense so as that wide receiver goes in motion as nobody follows that wide receiver Manning now understands that the slot Defender to his left is going to widen out as his wide receiver runs to the sideline right because that that slot Defender has the vertical hooks essentially but he also has to be responsible for anyone that's in the flats and to me that's a great recognition to just kind of know in your brain that you know this guy's going to widen out the slot Defender and then what that means is if the linebacker ends up coming down which in this instance that's exactly what happens he understands he's going to be able to just hit this to his wide receiver that's running the slant route it's just a great read overall by Arch Manning you know these are the type of plays that you know Scouts in the NFL have already seen from Arch Manning and I think this was probably why he was so hyped coming out of high school is because the little things that you have to teach quarterbacks as they get into college you know how to recognize coverage when guys going to motion you got to know what the defense is doing a guy's going to wide and out now you know there's going to have you know you're going to have a window of opportunity to get the ball out Arch Manning already recognizes all these different patterns because he's been kind of trained from the time he was a young kid from his uncles from his father from guys that know so much more about football than than me and and and you uh to me this was a really really good throw right it's a great read so really really nice job uh from that play you got a couple of run plays Manning ran another run pass option and I don't know if I mentioned this but the last play we looked at was a run pass option right so that is why Manning ultimately read that linebacker uh but then you had a couple more runs after that play you had another run pass option Manning pulls it he throws it to the wide receiver towards his right um and then from there you got a couple more runs and and keep in mind I should State this you know 26 total snaps uh he really only threw the ball six times so basically 20 of them were were essentially run plays right I I do want to State there was one other play that really impressed me um it was another run pass option this one impressed me because you know he made the right read right he recognized the linebacker coming down and it was a goal line situation so you know with with goal line versus non-goal line one of the big things is like spacing is a lot tighter he made the proper read he recognized that he could potentially throw a touchdown pass he pulled it he was going to throw it but he also saw the coverage number seven here here was right underneath it right it was again too tight of his space had he thrown that ball would have probably been intercepted and then he essentially did not make that pass but he had already pulled the football so he really didn't know what to do at that point so he kind of just fell forward and again that's another smart read although some people say Hey you know you either hand it off or you throw it you know neither of those two things happened but then he made the smart play by not forcing a throw right not turning the ball over now to me you know sometimes the best pass is just no pass right uh so that was a really really nice read once again um and then a couple plays later he ultimately snuck it in for a touchdown really really nice job so first two drives resulted in two touchdowns for Manning Drive three was kind of interesting because it was really just a whole lot of runs they did have one play which I really really like the design of this play I didn't agree with the fact that they actually showed this play you know if it was me I would have probably kept that you know in the bag for when Michigan comes right I think you can use that play against Michigan cuz it's a smart play right uh essentially what they're going to do is they're going to they're going to fake a screen towards the right and the wide receiver that's supposed to block in this screen play actually ended up releasing to the inside and uh essentially both guys ended up going towards the guy they thought was going to catch the screen and the guy blocking ran a quick little slant route Manning hits him and he picks up like 30 yards on that play it's a really really nicely designed play and it's executed perfectly and a Manning PP fakes it you know he does everything you want him to be able to kind of do within that play to to sell that play right but it was never designed for it to be a screen the whole point was to to get the ball to that wide receiver and uh to me it was a really really nice play but I don't think I would have shown that play on tape because now Michigan's seen it and and to be fair you know maybe they've already run this play earlier in the game although I didn't see it actually being run I watched the plays with Quin eers I didn't actually see this play being run but maybe they did maybe I just missed it maybe I didn't pay attention it it is kind of hard when you're also watching guys like Kelvin Banks you know the sers is another guy that's on my list some of you guys might know this some of you guys don't I work as a scout for the hoola bull so uh specifically with offensive and defensive lineman so when I watch Texas I'm mostly focus on the offensive lineman right so uh there's that uh it was a nice play and then that third Drive actually did end in an incompletion so after that play the wide receiver had uh on the fake screen play a couple plays later he did throw the ball on I think it was third down may have been fourth down I'm pretty sure it was third down and uh essentially he's going to throw it towards his left uh it's a real you know three-step drop he quickly gets the ball out the interesting play with that play in my opinion is the fact that uh you can see the cornerback you know he's not really playing over the top and he's not really playing underneath so I'm not really sure what type of coverage this was and uh you'll also see that the cornerbacks like super super shaded to the inside and you'll also see with that Manning still ends up throwing it over there so I don't know if this was the best of reads but the pass was super high into the left so that Defender was never going to be able to make that play right so the pass was thrown away from that guy so I don't I don't think it's a bad pass right the pass was was good but I don't know if the read was great I probably would not have thrown that or wanted my quarterback to throw that especially considering the defense that they were in um again it's not a huge deal but I didn't want to show you guys his final play cuz this was the one in completion and then from there the fourth drive was just him needing the football out overall man I was really really impress impressed with Arch Manning a Texas dominated but we kind of expected that right they weren't going to lose to Colorado State um I I was really impressed though with Texas offensive line they have a phenomenal offensive line they got NFL caliber players on that offensive line the defensive line wasn't bad I think it could you know I I thought it could be better but to be fair they did lose a couple of of interior guys to the NFL this past cycle um I think over the past two years they've also lost other key players I know dear Vin overon was at Texas I think two years ago as well um but there's also some Ballers on that side as well right and that's that's another thing you got to always keep in mind um you know they have a corner that I really really like he's on my radar as well uh just overall very very good team very very good overall game and I'm excited man for this Michigan game I mean it's it's probably the biggest game early on of the season right I think Texas at this Point's ranked number three and I think Michigan might be ranked like 10 according to the AP I was looking at the rankings um it's going to be a good game but I I think Texas is going to win this game I I think Michigan's a lot worse this year than they were last year although they're still a good team but they're not the same team right I think that's kind of clear right away and then uh Texas man is so much I mean Texas is probably you know if there's two teams that I would pick to win the championship Texas Georgia are my two teams I even say Texas is is better than Georgia at this point I like Georgia but I like Texas more specifically because I think Texas is a better offensive line and they have more Playmakers they have more receivers they have and they lost a lot of guys last year too right but they have some explosive guys um out there still right you got guys like jonte cook you got guys like Ryan wingo and Bon you got a couple other guys as well you got some good good Playmakers you got a good running back you got a good offensive line a good coach two good quarterbacks and uh I don't know it's going to be interesting man I'm excited for this one so let me know what you guys think I hope you guys enjoyed this video we will be covering texes this year on this channel I will be covering some other teams as well this channel is 100% college football I have a couple other channels as well I do o line dline content covering the NFL on the Football Scout channel uh I also work as a scout for the hola bow I do some work for NFL agents and a couple other things so I hope you guys enjoyed this video man if you did consider subscribing let me know which player you guys want to see next a break breakdown of Thumbs Up subscribe and I will see you guys next time with another video