Mack Brown reveals the key for Arch Manning to deal with outside noise with his stardom

Although Texas quarterback Arch Manning has started in just two games over his two-year career, he enters the 2025 college football season as one of the biggest names in the sport. With this comes Heisman Trophy and NFL Draft buzz, which Manning will have to deal with all season long.

When discussing this exact situation on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, legendary former Texas head coach Mack Brown responded to a question about if the stardom is a concern for Arch. In short, the National Championship winning coach shut it down.

“Yes, (but) you have less worries, because Archie Manning‘s the granddad and Eli (Manning) and Peyton (Manning) are uncles, and Cooper (Manning)‘s been through this whole ride with all of them, the dad, and this family handles it. They got class, they got charisma, they got confidence. They have done all of these things they need to do, and I’ve been around Arch enough.”

“He’s just — he’s smart, he’s self-deprecating, he’ll laugh, he’ll talk about people that have said critical things of him, and say, ‘Yeah, I understand that. Just I haven’t played a lot yet.’ So, I’m really excited to watch him play.”

Brown would know about whether or not quarterbacks can deal with fame or not, as he coached polarizing figures College Football Hall of Famer Vince Young and two-time Walter Camp Award winner Colt McCoy (both of which have their numbers retired by the University) at the position. Young and McCoy were larger than life figures in Austin from 2004-2009 and led the Longhorns to an 69-9 record and a National Championship (2005) in that span.

To this point, Arch has shown that he can positively deal with the press/attention he receives at this point. “I’m definitely honored that people think that (I’m a Heisman favorite),” he said via On3 | Rivals’ Inside Texas on X. “But I haven’t done anything yet. It’s about winning games at this point.”

In 12 career games, Manning has completed 66.3% of his passes for 969 yards, nine touchdowns and two interceptions. He hasn’t yet had the opportunity to shine at the Texas QB position as he sat behind Quinn Ewers for the past two seasons, but the floodgates are now open for the next Manning to shine on one of the biggest stages in college football.

The No. 1 ranked Longhorns open the season on the road at No. 3 Ohio State in a season-opening blockbuster on Aug. 30. Kick-off is scheduled for noon on FOX.