On Saturday, August 30th, the number one ranked player in the country, Arch Manning took the field as the starting quarterback for the Texas Longhorns against the Ohio State Buckeyes. Manning underperformed expectations by only having one passing touchdown in the 7-14 loss against the Buckeyes defense. Manning only threw for 170 passing yards and was intercepted in the third quarter.

From the first drive, Manning was making bad passes up and down the field. In the first half a lot of his passes were short, conservative, and timid. On his few passes down field he was missing short consistently. He only completed less than sixty percent of his pass attempts, which is below the average for Division 1 college football. He also only rushed for only fifty three rushing yards.

Manning’s post game comments were critical of himself saying that his performance was, “Ultimately not good enough… I think we beat ourselves a lot and that starts with me.” The number one ranked player in the country was clearly disappointed with his performance in the game. He also expressed his disappointment with the play calling stating, “It took a whole half for us to even get the ball down the field.” Despite this setback Manning still outperformed Ohio State in passing and total yards, along with yards per play.

By and large however this game was a major disappointment for the beginning of the season. Even though Manning shut down with his lone passing touchdown, the game was not a complete disappointment for the Longhorns.They held the star receiver for the Buckeyes, Jeremiah Smith, to only forty seven yards and zero touchdowns. They limited him to only six receptions in only ten targets all game. While maybe undeserving of the number one ranked team, the Texas Longhorns are still one of the strongest teams in all of college football.