Archie Manning "disappointed" that Arch was "crowned" before he ever played

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Last year's college football season began with much anticipation — and high expectations — for the latest member of America's royal family of football. The man who started it all is, in hindsight, not thrilled that people acted accordingly. "I was kind of disappointed in a lot of, just a lot of people," Archie Manning told Noah Gross of KXAN regarding the standard that was established for his grandson, Arch, prior to the start of his full-time playing career at Texas. "The whole thing. They kind of crowned Arch before he ever played. And I just didn't think that was fair. Yeah, it was a little tough start, played a great team, and anyway. But I've never been more proud of anybody in my life with the way Arch battled through what he had to go through last year, and the way he played, you know, the last eight or nine games of the season." It's fair for Archie to feel that way. But the situation fed naturally into the hype and, in turn, the high bar. Arch's uncles won four Super Bowls between them. One was a no-brainer first-ballot Hall of Famer. The other, who will likely get to Canton one of these days, authored two of the most impressive Super Bowl performances in NFL history — featuring a pair of unforgettable throws as David kept Goliath from winning eight rings instead of six. (The underrated sideline needle-threader to Mario Manningham in Super Bowl XLVI was as impressive as the Houdini-level escape capped by David Tyree's helmet catch from Super Bowl XLII.) Archie launched the Manning dynasty, as a great quarterback trapped on a horrible team with no way to get to a contender during a decade that featured a wide gap between football's haves and have-nots. Everyone saw it coming for Arch. Even before he was playing, he drew far more attention than the Texas QB1. (Who can forget the press conference where Quinn Ewers sat alone while reporters mobbed Manning ?) Yes, many believed that Arch, when he finally got a chance to start, would perform like Archie, Peyton, and Eli, all rolled into one. The problem was that, when it took Arch some time to develop (especially with a season-opener against an Ohio State defense stocked with 2026 first-round picks), the criticism became relentless. And that made Arch's ability to turn it around even more impressive than if he'd thrived from the get-go. As Arch prepares for what many believe will be his final season in college football (he could return for a fifth year in 2027, if he chooses), the bar is high again. Many already believe he'll be the first overall pick in the 2027 NFL draft. The lesson from 2025 could be that someone should be working to manage the preseason expectations better than they were managed for his first season. Ultimately, that falls to Texas to develop and deliver the proper messages about not expecting Arch to be a wire-to-wire superstar. Regardless, heavy is the head that wears the crown — even if that crown came from being the MVP of the Cheez-It Bowl. And the crown prince of the Manning dynasty (at least until Marshall picks a college) still faces very high expectations that flow directly from his name. It won't be easy to change that, and it could be even harder to live up to it.