Paul Finebaum reacts to Arch Manning bounce back, explains if questions have been answered

Arch Manning bounced back in a big way for Texas on Saturday, leading the Longhorns to a 38-7 win over San Jose State. Paul Finebaum was asked if he put Manning back on the Heisman Trophy train.

To be fair, he never got off. Finebaum argued it’s still too early to make these determinations, but Manning certainly reshaped the narrative around him with a five-touchdown day.

“Somebody asked me earlier, do I think he’s a Heisman candidate? And of course, I don’t think anybody can answer that. You can say yes or no, and both answers are probably about the same, because the Heisman is not going to be determined right now,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show. “But the most important thing for him is he got a good game in.

“He’s back to doing things that we expected of him, and ultimately, Arch is going to be tested when they have a good opponent, which they won’t for another couple of weeks, I suspect he’ll be a lot better.”

Manning was 19-of-30 passing for 295 yards and four touchdowns, with one interception. He also ran for another score. 

“What I got out of it, and I’m not trying to sound like goody two shoes here, but it was fun to see him happy, exhaling, celebrating,” Finebaum said. “I mean, that is ultimately what this is about, in theory. But he had a rough week. He survived it. That’s all that matters. I’ll spare you every cliche that we’ve ever learned on a little league team or anywhere else, but I really still believe that he will be good. Will he be generational? I’ll leave that to the experts.”

That sounds all well and good, but Manning wasn’t satisfied. Speaking with the ESPN broadcast team afterwards, he was critical of his play, believing the Longhorns offense has to clean it up, and it starts with himself.

“Once again, not very good. We’ve got to clean up a lot of things,” Manning stated, regarding his play against the Spartans. “Some guys made plays, which is good, but overall it was a little sloppy. … I thought I made more plays and attacked more, but it was still sloppy all around.”

Even though Manning didn’t love what he put on tape, his coach in Steve Sarkisian was more than satisfied. He called his quarterback’s performance “really good” while speaking with ESPN, seeing a bunch of bright spots against San Jose State.

“I thought he had a really good game today,” Sarkisian added. “He took advantage of some throws down the field. Lesson learned on a protection breakdown — forcing the ball — but we’re going to have some of those growing pains. I thought he used his legs well, scored a touchdown, threw it downfield, and created some explosive plays.”