First Take fires back at Paul Finebaum's bold Arch Manning, Tim Tebow comparison

There is an incredible amount of excitement for the first full season of Arch Manning starting at quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. The hype around him has only grown, and he even recently drew an interesting comparison from Paul Finebaum to Tim Tebow. In it, he argued, “Arch Manning is the best college football quarterback we have seen since Tim Tebow entered the scene in 2006.”

ESPN analysts Kevin Clark and Mike Tannenbaum were on First Take to fire back at Finebaum’s bold comparison. First, it was Clark, who argued that there have been several quarterbacks in college football more talented since Tebow.

“Paul, you know how much respect I have for you,” Kevin Clark said. “I’m hosting your show next week. I love everything you do. I’m going to send you the Wikipedia page for Cam Newton as soon as I get off here on the air because he’s the best. Then, there’s some work to do for Arch to be as good — first of all, a lot of guys — but Baker Mayfield being one of the best guys we’ve seen in the past decade. I’m not even sure, by the way, that Tim Tebow was the best quarterback on the 2008 Gators when you talk about Cam Newton being in that quarterback room.”

Arch Manning is a former five-star recruit who got some playing time when  Quinn Ewers battled injuries. In that limited time, he completed 67.8 percent of his passes for 939 yards and nine touchdowns to two interceptions. He also rushed for 108 yards and four touchdowns.

“So, I think that Arch Manning,” Clark said. “If he was standing right here, he would agree with me because the Manning family has done everything right. Sitting for two years. As far as not going and even looking at the portal. Not trying to skip steps in this process. I think they know they have work to do to get on this sort of plane, and I really don’t think that these expectations are fair when all we’ve seen from an SEC sample size is 33 passes against Mississippi State. By the way, Mississippi State is barely SEC as Paul knows. So, for me, I just think we have a ways to go and the Manning family would agree with me.”

For his part, however, Mike Tannenbaum pushed back on Kevin Clark. He thinks that the talent is there and Manning has done everything right since getting to Texas. So, he could have that kind of breakout season in 2025.

“Totally disagree with you. I’m with my guy here, Paul. Let me tell you why, I’ve seen Arch Manning play going back to his high school days at Isidore Newman High School in New Orleans. He is a great athlete, guys. He’s not a good athlete, he’s a great athlete. Way better than his uncles Eli, and obviously Peyton. What I love about what Steve Sarkisian has done, he has approached this situation — and this is where I disagree with Paul — as an NFL front office. Meaning, Quinn Ewers is the guy we’re going with today. We’re going to win for today, and develop tomorrow for Arch Manning,” Tannenbaum said.

“He did it in a way where there’s a meaningful relationship that Arch didn’t transfer, because we’re seeing quarterbacks transfer every 10 minutes in college. So, I credit Arch Manning for taking the long view in being developed in a really good program, not leaving when Quinn Ewers was named the starter… Now, the weight of the world is on his shoulders. We’re already talking about him and like you said, he’s only thrown 33 passes, but from an ability standpoint he checks all the boxes.”

Texas opens its season with a major road test against Ohio State. That should present an opportunity for Arch Manning to prove where he belongs in college football today.