Pete Thamel: Austin Simmons path, upbringing ‘more interesting’ than Arch Manning

Arch Manning is the biggest story in college football ahead of the 2025 campaign, but ESPN’s Pete Thamel believes that shouldn’t necessarily be the case. On the College GameDay Podcast, Thamel explained why he believes Ole Miss quarterback Austin Simmons‘ story is more interesting than Manning’s.

“He’s a really compelling character. His backstory and upbringing is actually much more interesting than Arch Manning’s, in a sense of his path is completely unique to anyone that we’ve seen,” Thamel said. “He graduated from high school two years early and before even starting a game for Ole Miss in his third season, he’s already a college graduate.

“[Ole Miss baseball coach] Mike Bianco told me that in baseball, if Austin had fidelity to only baseball, he had been a high-round draft pick. He’s got a really electric, loose left arm. In fact, we all saw him going against Georgia and have that 10 play, 75-yard drive for a touchdown to tie the game in Oxford earlier this year, which was sort of his shotgun, coming-out party. In April of 2024, in a baseball series against Georgia, he went in and struck out Charlie Condon.”

Simmons spent two seasons playing baseball for Ole Miss before deciding to completely devote himself to football this year. This season will be Simmons’ first as the Rebels’ full-time starter, after he spent his first two seasons with the team as Jaxson Dart‘s backup.

Simmons didn’t see any action in his first year with the team, but made nine appearances last season. He completed 19-of-his-32 pass attempts last season for 282 yards and two touchdowns, without throwing an interception.

Most notably, Simmons subbed into the game for Ole Miss against Georgia after Dart went down with an injury, and led the Rebels down the field to tie the game at 7-7. Ole Miss went on to win the game, 28-10.

Now, Simmons is ready to produce many more memorable drives for Ole Miss. Evidently, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is confident in Simmons’ ability.

“There’s some really interesting makeup and really interesting composure with Austin Simmons,” Thamel said. “The ball comes off his hand special and Lane [Kiffin] was like, ‘Yeah, there’s probably a lot of big words for it. I don’t know it, but the first time I saw him throw, he said, that’s Tua [Tagovailoa].

“Austin Simmons was not shying away, not cliché. He was a really impressive young man. He was really fun to talk to. And he basically was just like, ‘There’s a lot more coming.’ There was a quiet confidence to him, where he was not ducking what was coming for him. He thinks he’s built for it. He thinks he’s ready for it.”