Joel Klatt breaks down Arch Manning's issues through three games

Texas quarterback Arch Manning, who entered the 2025 College Football season as one of the preseason favorites to win the Heisman Trophy, has been extremely disappointing this season. His Texas Longhorns are 2-1 and currently sit at No. 8 in the AP Poll, but this is mostly due to their lack of competition following their season opener against No. 3 Ohio State.

Through three games, Manning’s numbers are very lackluster. He is completing just 55.3% of his passes and currently boasts a 128.8 QBR, which ranks 13th in the SEC just ahead of Florida‘s DJ Lagway (who has also been extremely disappointing this season).

Ahead of Texas‘ final tune-up game against Sam Houston this weekend, FOX Sports‘ Joel Klatt broke down some of Manning’s issues so far this season. He believes he identified exactly what the problems are.

“This is, to me, a more specific Arch issue with their offense. So what’s going wrong?” Klatt asked. “Well, one. 10 straight incompletions against UTEP. He’s completing 55% of his passes overall (that’s the second worst in the SEC). But then, when you look at throws that actually cross the line of scrimmage and go downfield at all, he’s completing 46% of his passes. Something is wrong right now with the game of Arch Manning. Something is wrong. He’s clearly not comfortable.”

Manning was booed off the field in 27-10 win over UTEP

After another three-and-out late in the second quarter of that game against UTEP, the entire offense was booed off the field at DKR-Memorial Stadium. The Longhorns would end up coming out on top with the 27-10 win, but it didn’t make Longhorn faithful any more confident in the season that lies ahead. Four of their eight conference games this season are against teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll (No. 5 Georgia, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 11 Oklahoma and No. 20 Vanderbilt).

“Even with his games that he was able to start and play in early last year, it didn’t really translate to him being comfortable,” Klatt continued. “I do think facing a defense as difficult to face as Ohio State in Week 1 did not do him a lot of good. But he’s clearly not comfortable, so here’s what I see.

“When young quarterbacks and the speed of the game around him is almost too fast (which makes them not comfortable), they do one of two things. They either speed themselves up so fast where they’re ahead of the timing of the offense or they’re so slow that they’re behind the timing of the offense.”

Manning will look to finally break out of his slump this weekend at home against Sam Houston. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:00 PM on Saturday. The game can be seen on ESPN+/SEC Network+.