Texas football entered 2025 riding a wave of hype they couldn’t quite surf. Ranked No. 1 in the nation to start the season, the Longhorns immediately stumbled out of the gate with a 14-7 loss to Ohio State.
A few weeks later, a 1-3 Florida team handed them another L, this time 29-21. That rocky start set off a media firestorm, with much of the criticism landing squarely on the shoulders of quarterback Arch Manning.
But for Cooper Manning, Arch’s father, the narrative missed the bigger picture.
Speaking candidly about the pressure his son faced during Texas’s 10-3 campaign, Cooper offered a perspective that cuts through the noise. In his eyes, the preseason No. 1 ranking set the bar unrealistically high for a roster that simply wasn’t built to meet championship-level expectations-at least not right away.
“If they were the 20th-ranked team, which they probably should’ve been, and they got beat by seven at Ohio State, it wouldn’t be the end of the world,” Cooper said. “But all the fluff and the nonsense that comes with it, and it adds to the useless banter that goes on.”
And there was a lot of banter. Hot takes about Arch’s NFL future, debates over whether Texas had underachieved, and endless questions about what went wrong.
But while the noise grew louder, so did Texas’s resolve. The Longhorns quietly righted the ship, winning seven of their final eight games, including marquee wins over No.
6 Oklahoma and No. 18 Michigan in the Citrus Bowl.
Still, those early stumbles continued to define the season in the eyes of many.
For Cooper, the criticism became exhausting-and avoidable.
“There’s a lot of people in this sports world that have opinions, and there’s only a small portion of them that are qualified to have them or that I would respect listening to,” he said. “You gotta pick your spots carefully.”
Arch’s numbers over the season tell a story that doesn’t match the headlines. He threw for 3,163 yards with 26 touchdowns and just seven interceptions.
On the ground, he added 399 rushing yards and 10 more scores. That’s 36 total touchdowns in a season that was, at times, painted as a disappointment.
The struggles early on? Cooper pointed to the kind of roster churn that doesn’t show up in preseason rankings.
The offensive line had major turnover. Some starters in Week 1 barely saw the field the rest of the year.
The receiving corps was brand new. And like Arch, a lot of guys were getting their first taste of real playing time.
“Texas had a lot of guys, just like Arch, making their first starts,” Cooper said. “They had a lot of youth, had a lot of turnover on the offensive line.
Some guys started Week 1 and didn’t play very much the rest of the year. The receivers were brand new.
Had a lot of new faces across the board.”
That kind of context often gets lost in the rush to judge a season by its first few games. And when your last name is Manning and you’re the quarterback at Texas, the spotlight is never going to dim. The scrutiny won’t stop heading into 2026, where Texas opens against Texas State with championship expectations once again swirling.
That’s the cycle. The hype, the pressure, the commentary-it all comes with the territory.
But if 2025 taught us anything, it’s that growth doesn’t always follow a straight line. And sometimes, the real story is what happens after the fall.