The Athletic’s latest ranking of college football’s 100 best players for 2026 is the kind of list that exists to start arguments, and Texas quarterback Arch Manning just handed Austin a new one.
Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith sits at No. 1 and Notre Dame cornerback Leonard Moore at No. 2.
Manning, the most famous name on the roster and a frequent first-overall name in early 2027 draft conversations, lands at No. 32 overall — the seventh quarterback on the board, behind Trinidad Chambliss, Dante Moore, C.J. Carr, Darian Mensah, Julian Sayin and Drew Mestemaker.
To a Longhorns fan who watched him close 2025 like a different player, that placement can look less like analysis and more like a public slight.
Sam Khan Jr. of The Athletic, who authored the ranking, treated Manning with a cooler tone than the hype cycle usually allows.
“Forget all the hyperbole around Manning,” Khan wrote, before crediting a “solid first year as a full-time starter” of 3,163 passing yards, 26 touchdowns and seven interceptions, and noting that 11 touchdowns against one interception in the final five games was “most encouraging.”
The projection that followed was measured rather than worshipful: a fourth college season, with a better supporting cast, “is set to be his best.” That is not an insult on its face. It is also not the language reserved for a player many still treat as the face of the sport.
The gap between reputation and ranking is what makes the slot feel like disrespect. Manning entered last season as a Heisman favorite and left it with a late surge, a Citrus Bowl statement against Michigan, and an offseason in which Texas added weapons such as Cam Coleman.
Quarterback is the position that decides playoff destinies, and the list still found six passers more valuable as college players right now. Khan’s own methodology — ability, past production, projected 2026 impact, plus input from coaches and scouts, not an NFL draft board — explains the math. It does not soothe the optics.
A name that sells tickets and dominates draft mock boards sitting behind an Oklahoma State transfer and a first-year Notre Dame starter is going to read, in Texas, as the industry talking itself out of the obvious.
There is a fair reading, too. Manning’s first half of 2025 was messy, Texas missed the College Football Playoff, and production from Chambliss, Moore and Sayin was cleaner over a full season. Rankings are snapshots, not verdicts.
Still, when the snapshot puts the most scrutinized quarterback in America seventh at his position on a top-100 list, Longhorn country is entitled to hear it as a challenge.
If Manning plays the way his last five games suggested, the disrespect will age poorly. If he does not, the list will look like the rare preseason document that refused to be dazzled by the last name.
