As Texas football enters the 2025 season with championship hopes, all eyes are on quarterback Arch Manning. The nephew of NFL legends Eli and Peyton Manning, he started just two games in his two years in Texas and has still decided against a transfer, choosing to grow in Steve Sarkisian’s system.
Peyton not only supports Manning’s choice but is very proud of him. He isn’t against the idea of staying in college beyond 2026 either.
Peyton Manning Explains Why He is Proud of Arch Manning Staying At Texas
Manning has been the most anticipated NFL Draft prospect ever since he joined the Texas Longhorns out of high school as the top recruit in the 2023 class and a consensus five-star talent. However, he only managed to start two games in two years, recording less than 100 career pass attempts and less than 1,000 career passing yards.
ARCH MANNING HAS ARRIVED. TD TEXAS🔥 🙌
FIRST TEXAS TD FOR ARCH 👏
(via @InsideTexas)
pic.twitter.com/0vsv0LtQgJ— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 31, 2024
It was Quinn Ewers who was starting for the Longhorns in the last two years, and now that he is in the NFL, Manning is poised to be the starter in 2025, and he took no interest in transferring to a different program.
“I’m proud of Arch,” Peyton told Sporting News. “He went to Texas because that’s where he wanted to go. He wanted to go to school there. That was the reason I went to Tennessee.”
Peyton spent four years at Tennessee before going No. 1 overall in the 1998 NFL Draft. Eli played five seasons of college football before going first overall, and like Manning, he had to wait two years to become a starter at Ole Miss. The hope is that Manning’s career will play out similarly, and Peyton is excited to watch him shine as a starter in 2025.
“The fact that this will be Arch’s third year in that system, he’ll have great knowledge of the system – still hasn’t had on-the-field game reps as I’m sure he would have liked, but those will come this year,” Peyton added. “There will be things for him to learn, but I’m proud of him for his commitment, and I’m looking forward to watching him play.”
There’s widespread speculation that Manning could stay in Texas beyond 2026, and while Peyton had no suggestion, he wished the students wouldn’t rush into the next stage of their careers.
“My wish for student-athletes is that they get to participate in college sports,” he said. “That they enjoy everything about that experience and not be in such a hurry that they get to the next destination.”
Seeing through college to its conclusion has been part of the Manning value system, and the redshirt sophomore himself has no monetary incentive to declare in 2026, either. He’s the highest-valued NIL athlete in all of college athletics with a $6.6 million valuation, not much less than what he’d make in his first year as a rookie if he were selected with the first pick.
Manning has expressed contentment with his standing at Texas, but if he takes a leap and becomes a No. 1 overall candidate, we could very well see him declare.
But for now, he is after winning a National Championship, and with Texas facing a challenging 2025 schedule that includes games against Ohio State, Florida, Georgia, and Texas A&M, the 21-year-old will have plenty of opportunities to prove he can be the championship-caliber quarterback his uncles have been known to be.