Rece Davis reveals biggest concern for Texas ahead of Arch Manning's QB1 debut in 2025

With the Quinn Ewers era now over at Texas, the Arch Manning era has officially begun.

In 10 games as a freshman last season, Manning threw for 939 yards, nine touchdowns and just two interceptions. The Longhorns were 3-0 in games he started (UTSA, Louisiana-Monroe and Mississippi State)

ESPN’s Rece Davis revealed on the College GameDay Podcast that he however believes Manning’s biggest concern is something that may be out of his hands.

“The question I have about them is can they protect [Arch Manning] and run the ball?” Davis asked. “They lost four guys and a couple of draft picks from last year’s [offensive line] and I didn’t even think they were great on the offensive line last year. So, that’s a bigger question to me about Texas.”

The Longhorns had three members of their offensive line selected in the 2025 NFL Draft (OT Kelvin Banks Jr., OT Cameron Williams and OG Hayden Connor) with another electing to enter the Transfer Portal (OT Malik Agbo). They did not bring in an offensive lineman through the portal.

This leaves a starting O-line of LT Trevor Goosby, LG Neto Umeozulu, C Cole Hutson, RG DJ Campbell and RT Brandon Baker. Last season, the Texas O-line allowed 37 sacks (118th best in NCAA) and surrendered 225 sack yards (105th best in NCAA).

If Arch can get quality O-line play next season, the sky is the limit for the latest Manning. Last month, Davis claimed that he could become one of the biggest villains in the sport if he in fact does reach his full potential.

Davis forsees Arch Manning becoming a CFB ‘villain”

“Here’s what I think that’s going to happen with Arch, and it’s unfortunate — because of the attention he’s going to get, he’s going to become a fan-favorite to those outside of Texas, and to others outside of Texas, he’s going to be the ultimate villain, and I don’t just mean Oklahoma people. It’s like the analogy that I use if you start hyping up a restaurant or a movie or a TV show, when you keep saying how great it is and how exciting it is and you cannot miss this, it is the cynical human nature of many to start rooting against it. That’s going to happen with Arch,” Davis claimed.

“The family genes would indicate he’s going to be able to handle it just fine. Kind of a smirk and a wink. … He has personality. He kind of understands how this is. He’s seen how his family commands attention and how they’ve responded to it. He’s still young. I mean, I’m sure he’s going to have his moments, both on the field and off, that will be frustrating. But I think on the outside there’s going to be all of this hubbub about him, ‘See, he’s no good. See, he’s the greatest Manning of them all.’ You know, all of those things. I figure that arch is just going to keep playing, keep cracking jokes and keep throwing touchdowns. I think he’s gonna be outstanding, and I think he’ll handle it emotionally just fine.”

Arch and Texas open the 2025 season on August 30 at Ohio State.

On3’s Steve Samra contributed to this article.