Texas Longhorns freshman quarterback Arch Manning has been buried on the depth chart in his first year with the program, which has led to speculation of him potentially entering the transfer portal. However, one report that emerged on Monday suggests that he may be “happy” at Texas and eager to return next season.
Manning has been the third-string quarterback behind Quinn Ewers and Maalik Murphy for much of the season. Ewers is reportedly likely to return to Texas, which could be troublesome to Manning’s chances of starting for the Longhorns next year.
This wold likely cause most players to transfer for a potential chance at starting elsewhere. But recent reports from Chris Hummer of 247 Sports state that he believes Manning is “perfectly happy” at Texas, even in a backup role at the moment.
“Based on everything we’ve heard, Arch is perfectly happy at Texas,” wrote Hummer. “I think the expectation is he will be back in 2024. The real question mark in the room is what happens with Quinn Ewers and what happens with Maalik Murphy. You never know what happens during a College Football Playoff run. He just had the best game of his career, in the Big 12 Championship Game, and we’ll see how he plays during the stretch run for Texas. That could impact his decision.”
Hummer does bring up a very good point here. While Ewers did state that he is leaning towards a return to Texas for 2024, that could presumably change a month from now.
We have seen plenty of players skyrocket up draft boards after great performance in the CFP. If Ewers performs well, we may see a situation where he vaults into a top-10 draft slot in the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft, which could be too much to pass up on for him.
That would create a battle between Manning and Murphy for the starting job should Murphy decide to stay at Texas, which is also another question mark.
The moral of the story is that there are still a ton of dominos that need to fall before we jump to the conclusion that Manning is definitely leaving Texas. And Longhorns fans should feel good about Manning seemingly behing happy about his time with the program thus far.
