Greg McElroy saw ‘a lot of positives’ from Arch Manning in Week 2

There is no quarterback more hotly debated through two weeks of the season than Texas Longhorns starter Arch Manning. After entering the season with a lot of excitement surrounding him, he stumbled out of the gates against the Ohio State Buckeyes before bouncing back in Week 2 against San Jose State. That’s continued to make him an interesting quarterback for many to follow.

While the level of competition took a step back in Week 2, it can make it difficult to clearly assess how much of a step forward Manning took. At the same time, there was plenty of good that shouldn’t be ignored. Analyst Greg McElroy broke down some of those positives that he saw in the game on his show, Always College Football.

“We will start quickly with Arch Manning,” Greg McElroy said. “I watched every play of this game, and I actually agree with his assessment that it wasn’t perfect. Good. You don’t want it to be perfect for a young player because now he can look at it and maybe not get a false sense of confidence, a false sense of assurance. I thought there were a lot of positives in this one.”

After only scoring seven points against Ohio State and failing to score multiple times in the red zone, Texas seemed to have a better plan against San Jose State. The Longhorns would go on to win 38-7. In the process, Manning completed 19 of 30 passes for 295 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for 23 yards and another touchdown.

“He finished the day with a pretty impressive statline. Went for 295 through the air. Five total touchdowns. I like how they kind of started the game. Remember last week, they kind of started him on kind of a rollout. Didn’t get him an easy completion. They start this time with a little jet sweep. Just throw. Kind of get the statline popping a little bit early. He clearly has a nice connection with Parker Livingston, who has caught now four catches for 128 and two scores. I really like how they used Livingston and I think his role in this offense is going to grow quite a bit. I also love the role that Jack Endries is starting to play for this team as well. The tight end transfer from Cal. You’re hitting him off play action. You’re getting him involved in the red zone,” McElroy said.

“But the best throw from Arch Manning in this game might have been in the second quarter with 7:45 remaining. He rolls out to the left, just a little bit, throws an absolute dart to the far sideline off play action to DeAndre Moore for a 17-yard gain.”

It was far from a perfect game. Manning still threw an interception, and the Longhorns were slow out of the gates offensively. At the same time, it was a major step forward and gave Texas some momentum to build upon moving forward.

“Now, I know Manning, he was kind of critical after the game. Some sloppy play. Things that need to be addressed. But if you look at a couple of protection lapses, a couple of drops. There were a couple of misses for sure,” McElroy said. “But I think that there’s a lot of things to take away from this game that I’m very optimistic about. Protection can clean up, sure. I think the emergence of Endries as a red zone threat is huge. The get right game was massive. They had to have it because it was a poor outing offensively. So, to be able to execute against an inferior opponent makes you feel quite a bit better.”

Next week, Texas is set to play UTEP. That should act as another tune-up game for the Longhorns before SEC play begins on October 4th.