Arch Manning’s Shocking Struggles and Alabama’s Hidden Weaknesses Exposed in Week 1
Next up for Texas: San Jose State, UTEP and Sam Houston State before a game at Florida on Oct. 4. So, the Longhorns have a month to get Manning comfortable — and to get rolling against defenses that are not as stout as Ohio State’s. He’ll be a different quarterback a month from now and a very different one by December. Texas will still have a great shot to contend for a national title. It just doesn’t feel that way right now, not after the way we all convinced ourselves Arch Madness was supposed to go right out of the gate.
Chris Simms, Joshua Perry, Nicole Auerbach and Ahmed Fareed react to Texas quarterback Arch Manning’s Week 1 showing against Ohio State, discussing Steve Sarkisian’s postgame comments and more.Matt Patricia deserves a ton of credit. The new Ohio State defensive coordinator with the NFL pedigree had a spectacular debut, holding a Sarkisian offense scoreless through three quarters and putting quite the damper on the start of the Arch Manning era. Manning struggled mightily in myriad ways; he missed wide-open receivers badly, but he also seemed confused when Patricia’s coverages changed after the snap. The Buckeyes retained some of their best attributes from the Jim Knowles era — they stopped Texas four out of five times on fourth down, and they held the Longhorns scoreless in their two red zone trips — by being one of the best in the country in goal-to-go situations.
1. Arch Manning is not quite ready for prime time. At least, not yet.
Patricia incorporated some new and intriguing blitzes. He moved All-American safety Caleb Downs around the field. Obviously, he couldn’t hold anything back against a team like Texas, so we got a pretty good look at what his imprint on this defense is going to be this season. Surely, it will continue to grow. Nicole Auerbach, Joshua Perry, Chris Simms and Ahmed Fareed break down Alabama’s Week 1 loss to Florida State, analyzing the program’s future under Kalen DeBoer.Each Sunday, I’ll publish my biggest takeaways from the college football weekend. I’ll highlight the most interesting storylines, track College Football Playoff contenders and specifically shout out individual and team performances that deserve the spotlight.
College football is unpredictable and delightful, which is why we live for what happens on Saturdays. Week 1 absolutely delivered, from dominant defenses in top-10 showdowns to a cathartic win for Florida State over Alabama. Oh yeah, and an underwhelming Arch Manning performance gives fuel to just about every potential #take in the content machine.
It was a rough season-opener for the very famous nephew of Peyton and Eli, and grandson of Archie. He looked uncomfortable for the entirety of the game against Ohio State at the ‘Shoe. He got confused by the Buckeyes disguising their coverages before the snap. He missed a number of wide-open receivers in pivotal moments. He did not look like he was in command of the offense (or that this was the best version of a Steve Sarkisian offense, either), though he did have a nice touchdown toss late and another good throw or two in the fourth quarter when Texas was playing with some tempo. But Saturday’s performance — 17-of-30 for 170 yards, one touchdown, one (bad) interception — reminded us that Manning was the *backup* quarterback the past two years. If he had been better than Quinn Ewers, we would have seen him more.
2. Ohio State’s defense may be the best in the country.
Quarterback Ty Simpson played well and did literally as much as he possibly could to help Alabama against Florida State. But the rest of the team did things that are just very un-Alabama. The Tide allowed FSU to run all over ‘em. The Seminoles played with a greater sense of urgency. FSU looked like the team that was trying to prove a point and show that the 2025 version of their team is far different than the one we saw in 2024 — not Alabama. It’s kind of mind-boggling, actually. I really thought the return of offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb would stabilize this program, as would a more normal offseason. This was by far the most interesting and surprising result of Week 1, to me.Unpacking Arch’s struggles vs. Ohio State
3. The sky is falling in Tuscaloosa. Again.
Has Alabama lost swagger under DeBoer?It’s early, but it’s certainly encouraging what we are seeing from new faces in new places.
It is not Manning’s fault that the preseason hype surrounding him reached insane levels. It is not his fault that Vegas installed him as the preseason favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. He didn’t ask for any of this; all he has said all offseason is that he hasn’t accomplished anything yet and wants to prove his worth on the field. About that …
When the dust finally settled on Week 1 of college football, one thing was crystal clear: this season isn’t going to be a snooze fest. Defenses brought fire in marquee matchups, while Florida State’s win over Alabama felt like a shot of adrenaline running through college football’s veins. But let’s be honest — all eyes couldn’t help but fixate on Arch Manning’s uneven debut, igniting a storm of hot takes far and wide. Every Sunday, I’m breaking down the biggest stories, spotlighting the teams and players shaking up the playoff chase, and digging into the moments that matter most. It’s the kind of unpredictability we crave — the reason Saturdays are pure magic on the gridiron. Ready to dive deeper? LEARN MORE
4. It was a no-good, very bad day for the Southeastern Conference. But it could have been worse.
It’s only Week 1, but it sure looks like certain transfer quarterbacks made good decisions when choosing their new homes. Boston College transfer and new Florida State quarterback Tommy Castellanos backed up his big talk by beating Alabama in his Seminole debut. Appalachian State-turned-UCLA transfer quarterback Joey Aguilar threw for nearly 250 yards and three scores in his debut at Tennessee, leading the Vols to a nice win over Syracuse in Atlanta. Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold showed his speed (and wheels) with 137 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in Auburn’s win over Baylor on Friday. Arnold’s successor, Washington State transfer John Mateer, accounted for more than 400 total yards and four total touchdowns (three passing, one rushing) in his debut in Norman. And former BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff led Tulane to a blowout win over Northwestern with 150-plus passing yards and 100-plus rushing yards, cementing the Green Wave as a College Football Playoff contender.
5. For some quarterbacks, a change of scenery is working wonders.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey should send flowers (or bourbon) to Baton Rouge. No. 9 LSU’s comeback and eventual 17-10 win over No. 4 Clemson gave the SEC one top-10 win after two of its other teams (No. 1 Texas and No. 8 Alabama) lost in their high-profile showdowns. I don’t want to shame any of the teams that lost on Saturday too much because I genuinely appreciate when blueblood programs schedule games against Power Four opponents (especially on campus!) but it’s true that results from a weekend like this set a narrative. We don’t get very many Power Four crossover games — not enough for a verifiable strength-of-schedule metric, for the record — so we have to overreact to this. It’s the only way to earn bragging rights or set the table for College Football Playoff bid arguments! And Texas losing to Ohio State and Alabama losing to Florida State are certainly going to contribute to both.It’s never a good sign when Alabama fans are googling the cost of the head coach’s buyout during the first weekend of the season. But … that’s where we are after the first game of the second season of the post-Nick Saban era. I think we all knew that it would be nearly impossible for anyone to follow the greatest coach in college football history, but I don’t know that even the most pessimistic of national pundits expected Kalen DeBoer’s tenure to include four losses to AP unranked teams in 14 games. That is the same number of losses to AP unranked teams as Saban had over 17 years.
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