Desmond Howard claims analysts are avoiding Arch Manning criticism to 'stay in good favor with the Mannings'

The college football offseason was spent building up Texas quarterback Arch Manning as the next legendary figure in the college football landscape, as he drew comparisons to all-time legends such as Tim Tebow, Cam Newton and Joe Burrow.

Manning’s first big-time start as Texas‘ starting quarterback however didn’t quite go to plan, as his Longhorns fell 14-7 to Ohio State in Columbus. His performance wasn’t bad, but it didn’t really jump off the page like many expected it to. The third-generation Manning passed for just 170 yards, one touchdown and one interception in the loss.

ESPN College GameDay‘s Desmond Howard took to Wednesday’s edition of The Rich Eisen Show, where he claimed that analysts and media members are ‘scared’ to criticize Arch due to wanting to remain in good standing with the Manning family.

“Now, he goes to Columbus and now this is the beautiful part about all of this,” Howard said. “People don’t want to really criticize him partially because he is a Manning. They want to stay in good favor with the Mannings, as they are a big name in our sport. So what they do is make it seem like Matt Patricia, the defensive coordinator for Ohio State, just called this brilliant game that kept Steve Sarkisian and Arch Manning off balance for four whole quarters. Now Matt Patricia did call a very good game. There’s no doubt about that.”

Howard laments Manning’s decision making in loss

“But, I saw guys on SportsCenter and other shows pulling like three tape plays and showing how he may have confused Arch Manning with a look or secondary switch at the last minute. I’m watching the film and I can show you 10-12 plays where guys were running wide open and he either just didn’t hit them with the ball or he didn’t see these guys. It wasn’t that complex or complicated.”

“He struggled the way I thought he would struggle because even though he’s been in the system, you look at him and he’s never really played in these meaningful games. The hype was blown way out of proportion for Arch Manning.”

While Howard criticized Manning, his College GameDay co-host Kirk Herbstreit revealed that he still believes in the Heisman hopeful.

“With Arch Manning, I think they’ll have a chance to get back,” Herbsteit said. “That was a tough ask to go into Ohio Stadium, defending national champs, with a quarterback who had a couple starts last year, but this was his first ‘It’s his team now’ kind of moment against a really athletic Ohio State defense with Matt Patricia. But they’ll go back. They’ll learn from that. I think Texas is gonna be fine. Tough schedule in the SEC, but I think at the end of the day, they still be a team that’s gonna end up making the playoff.”

Arch and his Longhorns will be back in action on Saturday against San José State. Kick-off is scheduled for 12:00 PM on ABC.