After three years of relentless buildup, it’s time to critique Arch Manning’s first Saturday as the undisputed face of college football.

• I thought his Warby Parker commercial was excellent. Amusing concept, perfectly executed (“I think it was the glasses.”)

• The Vuori ad was kinda boring, but he did show off both good charisma and pocket presence.

• He only had two lines in the Raising Cane’s ad (his dad really dominated this one), but delivered them perfectly.

As for his actual football game against Ohio State?

No point sugarcoating it. He mostly stunk.

Arch Manning didn’t ask to be hyped up more than any two-game college starter in the history of the sport, but it was unavoidable with that last name. His long-awaited moment in the sun against the Buckeyes was always going to be placed under the world’s most powerful microscope and dissected into a million tiny pieces.

But it didn’t require an advanced degree in football to analyze this one. Only a couple of late deep balls, one of them on a last-ditch touchdown drive, kept this from being an all-out disaster. The Longhorns lost 14-7 to the defending national champs, and Manning finished with a 108.6 passer rating, just below FIU’s Keyone Jenkins and Charlotte’s Conner Harrell among QBs who’ve completed their first games.

I’m generally uncomfortable ripping a college athlete, even in the NIL era. But Manning has already been covered like a 10-year NFL starter for some time. And Saturday on Fox, he appeared in as many commercials as Peyton and Eli. The backlash was going to be unavoidable even if he’d thrown for 350 yards but lost.

From his very first throw, when he rolled out and threw a pebble-hopper to open receiver DeAndre Moore Jr., it was evident something was off. Manning seemed either nervous under the spotlight, spooked by the Buckeyes’ pass rush or both. Throwing at receivers’ feet became a recurring theme.

Major credit goes to Ohio State’s defense in its first game under new coordinator Matt Patricia. The secondary disguised its coverages, blanketed the deep field and forced Manning to mostly throw short passes.

At halftime, Manning was 5-of-10 for 26 yards.

It didn’t help that Texas couldn’t run the ball either. Perhaps not surprising given the Horns are replacing four offensive line starters. On the defining play, Manning’s failed fourth-and-goal sneak from the 1-yard line with a chance to tie the game, even Jalen Hurts himself would have come up short on a tush push.

And then it went from bad to worse, with Manning throwing a ball into coverage that got picked off, followed by the Buckeyes going up 14-0 early in the fourth quarter.

To Manning’s credit, he finally got his feet under him shortly after that. He got Texas to the 9-yard line, where a fourth-down throw to the end zone really should have been caught by receiver Parker Livingstone. It was neither the first nor last time his receivers let him down with a drop.

And that was just the prelude to Manning’s one fantastic drive, throwing a 28-yard completion to Ryan Wingo and later a 32-yard touchdown to Livingstone with 3:28 left. The gurus who anointed Manning a future No. 1 pick coming out of the womb looked like they might be redeemed. Especially when Texas got the ball back again with 2:26 left and Manning made a big-time 30-yard throw to tight end Jack Endries.

But Manning’s very next throw was another short-hopper. On third-and-5, he threw behind a wide-open Wingo. And then, in fitting fashion, the game ended with Manning about to be sacked, completing a desperation pass well short of the down marker.

Final stat line: 17-of-30 for 170 yards, one touchdown and one pick.

And now I will give the requisite caveat: Try not to overreact to one game. Plenty of teams have dropped their opener and gone on to have a great season. And plenty of QBs have shaken off a rough outing and gone on to greatness.

But Arch is not a normal QB who will enjoy a normal leash. Few will soon forget him laying an egg in the first meaningful start of his career. The guy is now into his third season of college football, and his most impressive accomplishment to date has been … beating Mississippi State last year?

Beating Ohio State was never going to be easy. But for all the acclaim, I still would not have predicted his best performance Saturday to come in a glasses ad.

(Photo: Joseph Maiorana / Imagn Images)