Building A Bridge Between Archs'

Arch Manning is the highest profile Quarterback prospect in the history of football and I don't think its close. The nephew of 2 (probably) NFL Hall of Famers at the position has been in the limelight since he was a freshman in high school and his play throughout his high school career landed him a 5 star prospect rating and one of the highest rated QB prospects in history. He's been anointed as the next chosen one because of these extenuating details but his play on the field in his 2 years as the starter at Texas have only left people wanting more and wondering when he's going to play like the guy he's expected to be. Texas is coming off back to back 27-24 losses to unranked conference opponents and have said they are going to give sophomore backup KJ Lacey some first team reps this week. This seems to be the end of Arch Manning at Texas so where does this go from here?

For whatever reason it just hasn't worked for Arch at Texas and it's for the best that they part ways after this season. Coming into the season Arch was pegged to be a surefire Top 5 pick in the NFL draft but nothing about his play this season has been able to prop up that sentiment. Sure he has big time throws and is a really good athlete but at some point the overall tape has to matter, especially when Texas has a roster loaded with talent and has never looked stable with Arch at the helm. With knowing how committed and outspoken the Manning's seem to be about proper development for quarterbacks it seems to be that the realistic choice for Arch next season is going to be entering the transfer portal and coming back for his senior season. These are the potential landing spots that I believe would be the best and most realistic fits for him if he does hit the portal.

First off, I do think that Texas could choose to fire Sark and try to keep Arch around by going after a big name offensive coach with a proven track record of QB development which also happens to intertwine with some of the potential landing spots.

Ole Miss is the spot that I've seen a lot of the CFB talking heads eluding to as the most obvious spot with Chambliss moving on and the family ties at the school with Eli and Archie but that isn't the first school I thought of at all, LSU was. Arch went to Texas because he didn't want to follow in the footsteps of his family wanting to blaze his own trail to creating a legacy so I don't see why that would be any different now. Arch is also from Louisiana, its where he played high school football and his family also has deeper football ties in the state because of Grandfather Archie's NFL career with the New Orleans Saints but not specifically LSU. Arch also needs to tie himself to a coach that will know how to scheme to his strengths and Lane Kiffin has always been as bright an offensive mind as you could find in the college game. Lane always gets the best out of his quarterbacks and he's also the type of guy who isn't afraid to make drastic changes that other coaches wouldn't, he's hyper committed to fielding the best football team possible by any means necessary. He went out and got Sam Leavitt in the transfer portal after most likely being unable to coerce Trinidad Chambliss into coming with him and Leavitt is someone with a lot of talent but he's also wildly inconsistent which has hurt LSU at times this year. So I ask, do we think Lane Kiffin believes in Sam Leavitt's top level talent more than Arch Mannings'?

Know who's really good at coaching and scheming around the talent of quarterbacks? Will Stein. Know how I know that to be the case? When he was the offensive coordinator at Oregon he somehow made Bo Nix a Heisman finalist and he arguably should've won it. Bo Nix, the guy that refuses to throw the ball over 5 yards in the air as an NFL QB with one of the best offensive coaches of the 21st century calling the plays was a Heisman finalist that the Broncos very happily drafted 12th overall. All of that happened because of Will Stein. Will Stein is now in his first year as the head coach at Kentucky and Kentucky is currently 6-1 ranked #12 in the country. Kenny Minchey is their QB and he was a highly rated 4 star prospect coming out of high school that never even got a shot to be the starter in his 3 seasons at Notre Dame before transferring to Kentucky this year and he's been very effective, obviously considering the team success. Minchey also happens to be a senior so Will Stein will be looking for his next guy going into next season and who could possibly be a more intriguing reclamation project for Will Stein than Arch Manning would be? If I were Arch I don't think there's anybody better to hitch his developmental wagon to than Will Stein.

The school with the best coach in college football who also happens to be the most aggressive in the transfer portal probably seems like it'd be a decent bet too eh? Curt Cignetti has brought in an upper classman QB to captain the ship for Indiana each season he's been there and I highly doubt that trend is going to stop with Josh Hoover graduating and Arch Manning in the portal. Arch partnering with the guy who turned the worst program in college football history into National Champions in just 2 seasons with a "meh" starting quarterback at Cal that he plucked out of the portal that he turned into the Heisman trophy winner and subsequent #1 overall pick probably wouldn't be the worst option.

Honorable mention that I think would be really fun would be Arch choosing UCLA. Bob Chesney is also a really good coach and Nico Iamaleava might be out the door there after this year in favor of somebody more high profile and not coming off an injury.

Arch Manning is going to need to build a bridge from the burning Texas situation and its going to be really interesting to see where he goes but its imperative that he chooses solid ground to land on.