OTF Premium Thoughts on Arch Manning

[AusMOJO]

On 8/31/2025 at 7:55 AM, Quinncent McManning, Jr. said:

As i said in the game thread… too many poor side arm flicks without feet set. Look at this throw (ignore the fact that endries would have walked in for a td)

 

 

If he looks to his left, he had Endries wide open, I believe. 

[AusMOJO]

5 minutes ago, AusMOJO said:

If he looks to his left, he had Endries wide open, I believe. 

Actually looking at it closer, that looks like Spencer Shannon, #83. I think Endries is #88. But still, he was wide open on that drag route, the S or CB was being blocked in the end zone. All he had do was turn and plow into the end zone. 

That felt like an all game thing for him. He was barely under any pressure, even in this one, perfect OL block, has plenty of time, still makes the wrong read. 

[AusMOJO]

On 8/31/2025 at 8:05 AM, awashbump said:

I don’t think the run game was as good at the box score suggests. Patricia was fine with letting Texas get good runs when the field was big, but Texas simply didn’t run the ball when it counted. (3 & 4th and short, goal line)

I disagree, if you hand it off to Baxter on the goal line, instead of having Arch run it, those are TD's. There was push there. Because they converted several 3rd downs via running the ball, which were 3&2, etc. 

[harveycmd]

8 minutes ago, AusMOJO said:

I disagree, if you hand it off to Baxter on the goal line, instead of having Arch run it, those are TD's. There was push there. Because they converted several 3rd downs via running the ball, which were 3&2, etc. 

Before the game everyone was saying just let Arch run it on the goal line. Sark let him run it, but it didn't work. In Sark's defense, Arch had been successful running throughout the game, including a previous fourth down.

 

[DanielOnorato]

On 8/30/2025 at 4:16 PM, Gerry Hamilton said:

Rod and I said the least pre-snap motion of any game we could remember in real time 

Was there less motion in practice? Its confusing because the Publics leading heisman candidate was Texas weak link on the field. You could argue arch was their worst starter. I get it, its a tough road game, we flush it. I always felt Quinn was underrated because like Tom Brady he was unselfish and money on short and intermediate. Take what's there and let the other teams dumb dumbs make the mistakes. Arch was lucky not to throw a second pick. I chalk it up to inexperience and think his ceiling hasn't changed from prior thoughts. However, I have to ask has short and intermediate passing been a struggle for arch throughout his practice time at Texas, its clear he has Michael Vick downfield passing.

[DanielOnorato]

56 minutes ago, AusMOJO said:

If he looks to his left, he had Endries wide open, I believe. 

endries is 88, Spencer shannon is 83

[AusMOJO]

6 hours ago, DanielOnorato said:

endries is 88, Spencer shannon is 83

Yeah I corrected myself in another comment, couldn't edit that one for some reason. 

[Aspann85]

23 hours ago, Assistant Regional Manager said:

You have shown zero offensive pulse all game. You are going to need to score a TD at some point. You are at the one foot line. All a FG does is require you drive down again and score a TD, which looked like a daunting task up to that point.

You do not kick a FG from the 1 foot line in that situation. Ever. It is just flat wrong to adjust otherwise. It lowers your win probability in every way, making a one possession game, a one possession game.

And not to pile onto you specifically, but it’s the skee-ball analogy. You have the guy that goes for the “100” the whole time and unless he is lucky he may hit it 2-3x, but me, I go for the 50 every time and never lose. I can hit the 50 with my eyes closed bc it is taking the easier points when they are given. Those 50s add up to 500 from 10 balls when the guy going for the 100 only hits that hole 1-3x per game. It’s an all or none philosophy that can win you games but more consistently leads to losses. This game didn’t warrant the all or none mentality at all. We were moving the ball and they weren’t, plain and simple.

[Assistant Regional Manager]

4 minutes ago, Aspann85 said:

And not to pile onto you specifically, but it’s the skee-ball analogy. You have the guy that goes for the “100” the whole time and unless he is lucky he may hit it 2-3x, but me, I go for the 50 every time and never lose. I can hit the 50 with my eyes closed bc it is taking the easier points when they are given. Those 50s add up to 500 from 10 balls when the guy going for the 100 only hits that hole 1-3x per game. It’s an all or none philosophy that can win you games but more consistently leads to losses. This game didn’t warrant the all or none mentality at all. We were moving the ball and they weren’t, plain and simple.

We obviously disagree about this.

Kicking a FG from the 1 foot line to make a one possession game, a one possession game, has nothing to do with going for 50s every time vs 100s. It's called simple game theory. If the score of the game is 7-0, you need a touchdown. Kicking a FG from the 1 foot line makes the score 7-3. You know what is required when a score is 7-3? A touchdown. So you just bypassed an opportunity from the 1 foot line for a TD in hopes of a later possession ending in a TD when you have shown very little offensive pulse all game. It isn't smart. It lowers win probability. You just had as good of a scoring chance as you ever get in the game of football and chose to bypass it in hopes of scoring on a different possession later on.

[HookemChappy]

9 hours ago, AusMOJO said:

Actually looking at it closer, that looks like Spencer Shannon, #83. I think Endries is #88. But still, he was wide open on that drag route, the S or CB was being blocked in the end zone. All he had do was turn and plow into the end zone. 

That felt like an all game thing for him. He was barely under any pressure, even in this one, perfect OL block, has plenty of time, still makes the wrong read. 

He also was late throwing when they were coming out of their breaks. One thing good about Quinn was he was throwing before they finished coming out of their breaks break.

[El_Maestro]

I agree that the plan was manilla, and part of me feels like it was intentional to save the good stuff for the playoffs. After all, if TX takes care of business in the SEC this loss will not affect anything other than our egos. 

[Hashtag]

2 hours ago, El_Maestro said:

I agree that the plan was manilla, and part of me feels like it was intentional to save the good stuff for the playoffs. After all, if TX takes care of business in the SEC this loss will not affect anything other than our egos. 

The classic save the good stuff for playoffs. There is always some version of this in Texas history….”saving it for OU” “saving it for after OU” “saving it for Aggie” etc. 

[mmdaytontexas]

I just subscribed to OTF. I've been subscribed to the You-Tube Channel and following on X for a while, but I didn't know there was a website and an associated message board. I like it. 

The reaction from some Texas fans on X has been surprising. A lot of piling on Arch and Sark. It's nice to hear and read the guys on OTF with some more rational takes. The fact we won almost every statistical category against the defending National Champs currently ranked #3 in their hostile environment should tell us we are not that far off. 

Hook'em 

[Lavalulu]

Sark and Arch have to figure out a way to counter this kind of defense.  Because I have a feeling they’ll see it again at Florida, Georgia and AtM.

(maybe Rod Babers can talk about this strategy??)

Hook’em 

[diegozanna20]

12 minutes ago, Lavalulu said:

Sark and Arch have to figure out a way to counter this kind of defense.  Because I have a feeling they’ll see it again at Florida, Georgia and AtM.

(maybe Rod Babers can talk about this strategy??)

Hook’em 

Unless Sark is dumber than us sitting on the couch for 10 million a year I'd expect a gameplan centered around this for Florida and especially OU, cause you know Venables is foaming at the mouth for a chance to implement the blueprint on rattling Arch

[Bunk Moreland]

Just my opinion, but everyone needs to ease up on Arch a bit and stop comparing him with Sayin. You know who else played a much more impressive game at qb in his first major game against a top-5 opponent at home? Quinn against Bama in 2022. That game had little to no correlation to the way he played the rest of 2022. Bama won that game on the road, but it had a 4th-year Heisman favorite at qb in Bryce Young. It is ridiculous to expect Arch, who has never played in that kind of situation, to will his team to victory on the road against a top-5 team with only a fraction the experience that Bryce had in 2022.
 

Arch will be fine. It was our expectations that were way out of whack. We were expecting way too much of a young qb in one of the most challenging situations you can put ANY college qb in. You know who had a terrible game playing at the Shoe last year? Nico. Rourke from Indiana. Allar (at home!). Raiola. Quinn (in Dallas!). Those are all very talented QBs on good teams with more experience than Arch. Let’s please let him grow and develop. 

Edited 23 minutes ago by Bunk Moreland

[CoachBobbyFinstock]

On 8/31/2025 at 11:29 AM, diegozanna20 said:

The Film Guy talked a bit about Texas at Ohio St., here's some of his takeaways(He gonna upload an in-depth film study later) :
- Ohio State's defense is the most complex defense he studided since he started his channel
- Says Caleb Downs is the best and most instinctual player in college football
- Ohio State was perfectly prepared for everything that Sark dialed up, says that it's the same thing that OSU was doing last year along with Georgia and Vanderbilt
- He thinks the worst thing coming out of this game, although he says he's not sounding any alarms yet, is Sark's gameplan and that he needs some new stuff
- He says that the moment was too big for Arch and that caleb downs pre-snap vs post-snap had a lot to do with it, along with the enviroment and the general talent on OSU's defense
- Says that Arch was one of the most sound quarterbacks mechanically and foot work wise he'd seen last year and that yesteray everything went out the window
- The good takeways for Texas were CJ Baxter and the defense, says they're still really good

Disagree with this guy about the gameplan. Texas had 2-3 chunk plays that were set up but Manning couldn’t deliver.  That would have completely changed the narrative some of this game. 
 

Opening play would have been at least a 25 yard play. Manning spiked it. Moore was open with separation. 
 

The next was the rub concept on 3rd down to Wingo late in the 4th. That play was set up to the shallow or even the rail.  Moreso the shallow which is where it was designed. Texas is easily inside the 30 and Wingo would have been 1v1 with the safety. I like that matchup.

Finally, the play inside the 10 with another rub concept where Manning went to Livingstone instead of an open Wingo on a slant route that was well designed. Wingo gets in or is at the 1. 
 

Those are 3 monster plays that were just fine from a schematic standpoint that would have put points on the board or put Texas in scoring position. 
 

Manning didn’t deliver. Coaches can only put players in position. Sark did that in those instances. 

Edited 11 minutes ago by CoachBobbyFinstock

[Cujonation83]

1 hour ago, diegozanna20 said:

Unless Sark is dumber than us sitting on the couch for 10 million a year I'd expect a gameplan centered around this for Florida and especially OU, cause you know Venables is foaming at the mouth for a chance to implement the blueprint on rattling Arch

OU has a good front but they ain't Ohio State and their oline is SUSPECT.