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By Rowan Fisher-Shotton
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The game everybody had circled heading into Week 2 was Ohio State at Texas, a matchup between two powerhouse programs and a rematch of last year's season opener, when Ohio State held on for a 14-7 victory at home.
This time, the game was in Austin, and Texas rallied late to secure a signature win, scoring 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to knock off the top-seeded Buckeyes.
That win alone did enough to put Arch Manning back on the Heisman radar. But in the eyes of top NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay, it didn't do much to affect his draft stock, and he still needs to see more from the Longhorns quarterback.
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"He's still developing. He's not a finished product," McShay said. "If you talked to me at halftime, it's like, yeah, he's not ready. Let's start focusing more on 2028 and getting better this year. And maybe he's got to return for one more year. And that may still be the case.
"Then you go to the second half, and you see a young man who is literally like, 'Over my dead body, I will find a way.' And the mobility starts to factor in, which it didn't in the first half. Extending plays, making throws under pressure, hanging in there tough, and finding a way to win. And at the end of the day, that's what quarterbacks are ultimately graded on, if you will, those moments."
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Manning finished the day 23 of 37 for 195 yards with one touchdown and one interception, along with 24 rushing yards. Those aren't pretty stats, but much of that production came in the second half, and he led three straight scoring drives in the fourth quarter to beat one of the preseason national championship favorites.
Through two games, Manning has shown flashes that he can be an elite franchise quarterback at the NFL level. He's also had some hiccups, and as other quarterbacks like Darian Mensah and CJ Carr continue to emerge, he'll need to start stringing together more complete performances if he wants to be the first quarterback off the board in the 2027 draft.
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Manning will have plenty of opportunities to improve his stock ahead, though, with Texas next set to host UTSA before SEC matchups against Tennessee, Oklahoma, Florida, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State. If he can carry that momentum from the second half of the Ohio State win, the best may yet be to come for Manning and the Longhorns.
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