Cooper Manning has watched the media cycle around his son Arch play out exactly as he expected. The hype was absurd. The backlash was inevitable. And now the hype is building again for next season, which means the backlash will return when Arch has a bad game.<\/p>\n
Cooper spoke with Bruce Feldman of The Athletic<\/a> about what it\u2019s been like to watch Arch\u2019s first season as Texas\u2019s starting quarterback unfold under a microscope that no college player has faced in the social media era.<\/p>\n \u201cI think being a parent of someone who\u2019s being critiqued on every little move is definitely a challenging spot,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people in this sports world that have opinions, and there\u2019s only a small portion of them that are qualified to have them or that I would respect listening to, so you gotta pick your spots carefully. And that goes both ways when they\u2019re saying nice things, you know that can flip on a day or a dime.\u201d<\/p>\n The criticism of Arch reached a fever pitch<\/a> in October when The Athletic published a column asking, \u201cIs Arch Manning college football\u2019s first flop?\u201d The New York Times shared it on social media<\/a> with even harsher framing, calling Arch \u201ca man synonymous with failure\u201d just five games into his first season as a starter.<\/p>\n Cooper understands where the criticism came from. Texas entered the season ranked No. 1 with Arch as the Heisman favorite and projected top pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. When the Longhorns lost to Ohio State in Week 1 and then struggled against UTEP and Florida, the media that built Arch up spent weeks tearing him down<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they were the 20th-ranked team, which they probably should\u2019ve been, and they got beat by seven at Ohio State, it wouldn\u2019t be the end of the world,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cBut all the fluff and the nonsense that comes with it, and it adds to the useless banter that goes on. I\u2019ve learned to limit what I read and listen to. It\u2019s actually quite liberating.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas finished 10-3 and missed the College Football Playoff. Arch threw 26 touchdowns and seven interceptions on the season. In the three losses, he threw four touchdowns and four interceptions. The numbers weren\u2019t catastrophic. They were fine for a first-year starter behind a rebuilt offensive line. But they weren\u2019t Heisman-worthy, and that\u2019s what made them a disappointment in the eyes of people who decided before the season that Arch needed to be the story.<\/p>\n Paul Finebaum called Arch \u201cthe best player we have seen from every aspect since Tim Tebow<\/a>\u201d before he\u2019d even started a game. The Wall Street Journal crowned him \u201cthe Biggest College Quarterback Prospect Ever<\/a>\u201d before he\u2019d thrown a meaningful pass. ESPN had him projected as the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft before he\u2019d faced real adversity.<\/p>\n Then, Arch struggled at Ohio State<\/a>, and the same outlets that manufactured those expectations<\/a> spent weeks analyzing whether he was mentally broken. ESPN announcers Sean McDonough and Greg McElroy relaunched his Heisman campaign<\/a> during a win over Vanderbilt in November, proving Cooper\u2019s point about the cycle repeating itself.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople would try to downgrade the whole thing in one little week or two, it\u2019s kinda silly,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cIt\u2019ll start all over again, and then he\u2019ll be hyped up again this offseason \u2014 it\u2019s coming, and he\u2019ll have some bad games next year, and here it comes again.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooper knows exactly how this works. He\u2019s watched it happen to his brothers Peyton and Eli, though neither of them faced the scrutiny Arch does because social media didn\u2019t exist when they were in college. Peyton had years to develop at Tennessee. Eli had time to figure things out at Ole Miss. Both got to fail when no one was watching.<\/p>\n Arch doesn\u2019t get that luxury. Every incompletion gets analyzed. Every interception becomes evidence of some deeper flaw. And the media treats his success or failure as a reflection of whether he deserves the Manning name.<\/p>\n Cooper\u2019s solution is to limit what he reads and listens to. He doesn\u2019t pay attention to most of the noise because most of the people making it aren\u2019t qualified to have opinions worth respecting, at least that\u2019s what Arch Manning\u2019s father believes. That applies when they\u2019re saying nice things, too, because those same people will turn on Arch the moment he throws a bad interception.<\/p>\n \u201cThe coverage of sports is over the top, and there are too many people doing it,\u201d Cooper told The Athletic. \u201cIt\u2019s no different than when they were saying he was the greatest thing since sliced bread early in the season before he\u2019d ever played.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cooper Manning has watched the media cycle around his son Arch play out exactly as he expected. 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