I was thinking about something similar earlier. And I don't really give a fuck about the pages of inane discussion previous to this post or the pages that will assuredly follow it. Just wanted to write a little tonight. Open for feedback. Cleaned this up a bunch like I would be writing for a publication.
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When you play for any sports team with a high level of visibility there are two forms of pressure. There is internal pressure and there is external pressure.
Internal pressure is what you face from inside. Your coaches, your teammates, your equipment managers, maybe most notably your fans. It is all of the people around you or in your immediate vicinity that you interact with on a regular basis who are wanting you - and oftentimes expecting you - to succeed.
Then there is external pressure. External pressure is the national media, the haters, the rivals, the naysayers on social media - the other fans that expect you to be good and when you are not good jump at every opportunity they can to immediately shoot you down.
Internal pressure is the Philadelphia Eagles. If you play for that team and you do not perform you are going to find out very quickly. It might be from people within your own organization or it might be from fans on the field. You may go for a bacon, egg and cheese out in the city and someone spits on you because you dropped an interception the week prior.
External pressure is the Dallas Cowboys. Everyone - except your fans - despise you and want you to lose. Every time you take the field you are on national TV and under intense media scrutiny and the subject of tens of millions of people doing nothing but hoping that you lose whichever game you are currently playing.
Every player faces some combination of these two factors and has to deal with it during the course of their careers. Whether it is in high school, in college or as a professional. Some more so than others.
"More so" would do well to qualify the nascent career of Arch Manning who is currently being broadsided by both forms of pressure in a way that potentially no college football quarterback before him ever has.
The college football zeitgeist features Arch on its front page every week. They tend to deflate him any chance they can get. His own fanbase does their best to temper expectations but generally winds up admonishing him as well.
The internal pressure is oppressive - Arch is attempting to lead a team that has made the national semifinal two-straight seasons beyond that. He is hoping to deliver a national title to a fanbase and program that since 1970 has struggled to even remain in contention most seasons.
The external pressure might be worse. Arch's grandfather is in the college football hall of fame. One of his uncles is widely regarded as one of the best quarterbacks to ever take a snap behind center. Another uncle threw for 57,000 yards in the NFL and has two Super Bowl MVP trophies to his name.
The team Arch is lining up for - of course - is the Texas Longhorns. Since their third national title in 1970 the Longhorns have come more than close on a number of occasions but only lifted the national title once. That title - which was won 20 years ago now - came in large part on the back of one of the most prolific college quarterbacks of all time in Vince Young.
Arch - of course - knew all of this coming in. He knew the weight that his last name carried. He knew the weight that TEXAS scrawled across the front of his jersey every Saturday would carry. Yet he signed up for it anyway.
Arch has delivered mixed results so far. A couple of breakout performances as a stand-in starter in 2024 excited fans and the nation alike. A middling performance to start Texas' 2025 season on the road against defending national-champions Ohio State tempered expectations quickly. His two follow-up performances against Texas cannon fodder SJSU and UTEP did little to dissuade concerns.
So - is the pressure too much for Arch Manning?
Only one person can determine that - and that's Arch.
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