Texas football legend Vince Young believes Arch Manning will redshirt his freshman season.
With Arch Manning slated to join the Texas football program in January, Longhorns legendary quarterback Vince Young expects for the five-star quarterback to redshirt his freshman season.
Young appeared on ESPN’s First Take on Thursday morning to discuss the Texas football program. The 2005 BCS National Champion quarterback spoke with fellow college football legend and former NFL veteran wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson about the possibility that Manning actually redshirts. Doing so would create two years of separation between Manning and Quinn Ewers.
"“I really feel like Arch has a great opportunity,” said Young to Johnson on ESPN’s First Take. “One of the things that I’m hearing is that he is going to redshirt. That’s going to help out a lot, so you can understand how to travel with the team. Get the feel of the fans, the university.”"
Redshirting is dangerous in the era of NIL, but it worked out for Young back in the early 2000s.
"“So when you have those types of things and you take a year off like when I played with Coach [Mack] Brown, I redshirted,” continued Young. “And I feel like that redshirt year helped me understand how to be a quarterback at the University of Texas. And then what you go through. Traveling and things like that.”"
This is an opportunity for the spotlight to come off Manning, while Ewers moves front and center.
"“So if he does that, I really feel like it’s going to be good for him to sit back, and kind of learn and also get familiar with the offense and stuff like that. Hopefully, if he does that, I think that’s going to help him for the future,” finished Young."
Here is the clip off Young speaking with Johnson about all things Manning and Texas football.
Let’s discuss the pros and cons of Manning redshirting his freshman season at Texas in 2023.
Vince Young: Arch Manning is expected to redshirt with Texas football team
In a perfect world, this would be the best-case scenario for him. Manning would have an extra year to ramp up to the level of competition of Big 12 football, and soon to be SEC football, after playing at the same small private school in New Orleans that his famous family members did. Putting two years between him and Ewers would allow Manning more runway to start at Texas.
However, there are a few factors that are out of The Mannings’ control. One, what if Hudson Card beats out Ewers for the starting job in 2022? Ewers already used his one-time free transfer by leaving Ohio State after a season after enrolling a full year early. If he were to transfer again, he would need to sit out. Card played a big part in Casey Thompson leaving for Nebraska as well…
Two, what if Steve Sarkisian’s next two years in Austin are more like the first? While the monkey business may be a thing of the past, the university has played a huge part in Texas not being back for well over a decade now. If Texas is not anything better than the fourth-best team in the Big 12 after the 2023 season, who is to say Sarkisian will get a fourth year to lead an 8-4 football team?
And three, what if Manning is clearly better than Ewers, Card or any other quarterback on the Texas roster? Yes, keeping all of his eligibility intact makes some sense, but if Manning is the “Real Deal” Holyfield as everyone keeps saying he is, then he has to play sooner rather than later, right? Potential only satisfies rabid fanbases for so long. The longer he waits, the more people will talk.
Conversely, redshirting did serve Young playing for Mack Brown and similar things could happen for Manning being redshirted by Sarkisian. While Young could have probably used a redshirt from Jeff Fisher in Nashville professionally, there is so much left to be written in the budding career for the first of the third generation of Manning quarterbacks. Maybe 2024 will be the Year of Arch?
Ideally, redshirting Manning makes sense, but nothing has gone accordingly for Texas in years.
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