With the 2026 college football season to begin this weekend, ESPN has ranked the top 100 players in the country. While Texas quarterback Arch Manning cracked that list, he was left outside of the the top five for his own position group.
Despite facing unfair pressure from fans and media members in 2025, Manning still had 3,163 passing yards, 399 rushing yards and 36 total touchdowns for the Longhorns. He played some of his best football towards the end of the year, proving that he just needed time to master Steve Sarkisian’s offense.
As of this moment, ESPN has Manning ranked as the No. 13 overall player and No. 6 quarterback in the country.
“Perhaps the most polarizing player in the entire country, Manning goes into his second year as a starter with plenty to improve and a lot to prove,” ESPN wrote. “After a shaky start in 2025, Manning got better as the season went on, throwing just two interceptions in the final eight games of the season, while leading the Longhorns to wins over Oklahoma and Texas A&M. Still, improving in the short yardage game is an absolute must — and so is making it back to the CFP — for both Manning and Texas to live up to the outsized hype.”
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Here’s the current top five, per ESPN:
- Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss
- Notre Dame QB CJ Carr
- Ohio State QB Julian Sayin
- USC QB Jayden Maiava
- Oregon QB Dante Moore
It’s hard to argue with ESPN’s rankings, especially since Chambliss, Sayin and Moore have been more productive.
How can Arch Manning take the next step in his career?
ESPN analyst Jordan Rodgers recently said Manning could level up his game by improving his accuracy on short passes.
“The accuracy, especially on the short throws from zero to 10 yards last year,” Rodgers said, via On3. “Arch was the most inaccurate quarterback in the SEC and 122nd in the country, completing only 56% of those throws. It really rooted back to his feet, which kind of affected his upper body mechanics. His eyes are going to be all over the place. His feet are going to be fast. You see the slow start that led to the explosion we saw towards the end of the season. That’s because his feet started to get better. He started to calm down. His eyes started to go to the right spot, and so his accuracy really started to increase.”
If Manning properly develops, he’ll be a first-round pick in next year’s NFL Draft. For now though, he’s focused on winning games in Austin.
