The Josh Innes Show - Arch and The Disappointing Longhorns

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

What an amazing weekend of college football! Texas/Ohio State was the premiere matchup. The game itself was sort of a dud. Arch Manning, the greatest QB ever according to many, was bad. Does Manning deserve a lot of criticism? Why are some media people protecting him? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Good morning or whenever the hell you're listening to this. It's Josh all up in us. It is 423 this morning. And I am here at the radio station. I'm here earlier than usual. I got up like 15 minutes early after only sleeping for about three hours because I was just excited to get here today to talk ball and talk about everything, man. This is just what a weekend. What a weekend of college football. I mean, let me tell you, the best thing. The best thing about Monday being Labor Day and being a day off of work is that now we are only really, what, three days away from the start of the NFL season. So we didn't even have to live through Monday because Monday wasn't your regular Monday. Most of us are off of work. There's a college football game on that Monday. So what a time to be alive, though.

The weekend in college football was spectacular. Then you get the Cowboys and the Birds on Thursday. My God, we're doing some. living. I was so excited about what we experienced on Saturday. Now, Friday was fine too, but Saturday was great. Sunday was great. Yesterday was a terrible football game, but it was a football game. Who the hell cares? Like, I am so glad to have football back that I already dreaded not being there. I don't know if anybody else felt that this weekend. Like, I'm watching an LSU wins on Saturday and I'm going nuts and I'm sitting there thinking to myself, God, there's

only 11 more of these games until the regular season's over. That means we're only a couple of months away from being eight months away from football being back again. It was like a weird experience sitting there thinking to myself, my Christ, there's going to come a time not too long from now that it's going to be just basketball season or baseball season or hockey season. I've never thought of myself as that guy, but as I start getting into it a little bit, bit more. And you start realizing how important football is to our overall, just dialogue every

day in the world. Like, baseball will never be that. Hockey will never be that. Basketball will never be that. It's like the world almost, it's almost like the world stops spinning when football's not happening. But football is back. Let's start off with the, basically the earliest game there was on Saturday. Shouldn't have been that early, but it was. Let's get into some stuff about Texas. Is Texas back? But an arch and everything else. Let's play a few commercials and let's get cracking. All right. It's game week, baby, and we are ready for football with Draft King's Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the National Football League. You know, I love my live bets, but I'll also put in some pregame spread bets over unders,

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and vary by race. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at mx.ca.com.com. This episode is brought to you by Defender. With its 626 horsepower twin-turbo V8 engine, the Defender Octa is taking on the Dakar Rally, the ultimate off-road challenge. Learn more at landrover.ca. So Arch Manning is probably the most hyped up quarterback, maybe ever? Is it possible that he's the most hyped up quarterback ever?

Even more so than like Bryce Underwood, who also made his debut. I shouldn't say also made his debut. Arch has played football before, so this is not his first rodeo at the college level, whereas Bryce Underwood at Michigan was making his first ever appearance as a college quarterback. He went bad.

He had a few nice moments and also had some balls that he'd like to have back. He also got the luxury of playing at home against New Mexico. Bryce Underwood's going to see possibly, maybe possibly, how the other half lives this week because he'll be at Oklahoma. And Oklahoma's going to have horses everywhere. So we're going to see how Bryce Underwood does

and start to not being at home and not facing New Mexico. Arch Manning certainly was not at home. Ohio State is about as far from Austin as you're going to get in terms of the comfort of being in your friendly confines. And he certainly wasn't facing New Mexico.

He was facing one of, possibly the best team in the country. maybe the best team in the country. Now, granted, he had to face another guy making his first start, so it's a little bit different. It was similar in vibes to LSU-Clemson, except both LSU and Clemson are returning established Heisman Trophy candidate quarterbacks, whereas with Texas, you know, Texas is two first-time starters.

I say first-time starters. Again, Arch has played before, but you got Arch and Julian Sayan, who's the quarterback at Ohio State, both of whom are making their, really their debuts in about as tough a situation as you're going to find, particularly for Arch. That said, Arch came in with all the hype, much Ballyhooed. The media people blew him. The whole world's blown him. The Texas fans who bless their hearts, Texas fans are interesting because Texas, for the most part, is an underachieving football program.

Yes, I get that last year they were in the college football playoff. for the most part, considering if you look at hype versus actual reality, Texas is an underachieving program. Very similar to A&M in that way. But the difference is, of course, that A&M is kind of the little brother versus Texas, who's the big brother. There was no Aggie network. There was a Longhorn network. The expectations and the kind of lore that's around Texas football doesn't really match what the productivity is. You would think that Texas is like a 10-time national football champion, the way it's talked about.

The way football is talked about in the state of Texas, everybody says, well, Texas, I mean, football is just different in Texas. Yeah, it is, but the teams that play football in Texas aren't champions, generally speaking. It just don't work out that way. So, Texas is going to be judged differently, and Arch Manning is going to be judged differently. My issue with what we got out of the way Arch has been handled is all of these media people, got in on the hype train, all these people talk about how Arch is the next big thing. Then when he goes out and plays like shit, not just, you know, doesn't play well, played like shit.

His numbers ended up looking better because late in the game he put together a drive or two when they were already down and made the game look a little bit closer than it was. Early in the game, when the game was still truly in reality in the balance, Arch was shit. And you can't spend an entire summer and really an entire two, three years hyping up Arch Manning. And then when he goes out and sucks, it becomes, oh, I mean, we got to pump the brakes a little bit. He's making his first. That's probably true. That's probably reality, right? But when you did all the hyping you did, I'm talking Texas fans. Texas fans hated Quinn U.S. They still do. Like, in the process of watching Archmanning play like

shit. So many people on social media just used it as an opportunity to not Quinn Ewers. People saying shit like, hey, when was, I didn't know that Quinn Ewers was still here. Quinn Ewers won you a lot of football games. Arch Manning, big picture, hasn't won a fucking thing for you and just went on the road and played about as bad as you're going to play. Now, do I believe that Arch Manning is going to be that bad every week? No. But what you're learning here about people is that you cannot sit around and believe all of the hype that you're getting. Because if you start believing all the hype you get, look at all the people who were hyped up that came through this weekend. It really wasn't a ton of them.

It's not like Julianne. I don't think Julian Sane, who the quarterback at Ohio State was super hyped up. He played well enough to win, but it's not like they were fantastic either. But Cade Clubnick, look at Clemson. And it's a different type of hype than you got for Arch. Arch is kind of an unknown hype versus Clubnik who got the, well, he's been around a couple years. This is his year. Heisman hopeful, returning all these starters on offense.

And then he didn't live up to the hype at all. LSU's defense just strangle them. They were awesome. Bryce Underwood, tons of hype. Guy gets a $12, $13 million NIL deal. He plays, okay. Like, his hype is different. Like, even a guy like Underwood.

Underwood, you should cut more slack than you cut Arch Manning. Because Arch Manning's been in the program for a couple years. In theory, Arch Manning should grab the ball and be able to go. I mean, shit, look at Garrett Nussmeyer. Garrett Nussmeier, while he's not as Ballyhoo, I don't know why I keep using the word Ballyhood, but like he is as hyped up as Arch. Remember Nussmeier when he became the starter. It's not like he had played a bunch of games before he became the starter at L.

Last year, when Nussmeyer makes his first couple of starts, it's the first time this guy's been a starter at LSU. He had the benefit of some bowl type of stuff and all that because Jane Daniel said see you later and pieced out early and was like, I'm playing on a fucking bowl game and ruining my chance being a top pick. And it was a smart move and it's a move you can't really criticize. But Nussmeyer essentially making his first stars played very well. But you look at Arch and he didn't. Arch didn't play well, and whether it's fair to him or not, like I see a lot of media people. There are some media people I've seen that are playing the angle of like, oh, it's unfair to do this demanding because it's his first start and it's at the horseshoe. And what would you have rathered him open the season against, you know, Ohio University instead of Ohio State?

And he throws for five touchdowns and the hype train rolls on. I hate when people who help aid in the hype train, then when the hype train gets derailed or the actual car. get derailed, they turn into people who basically point the finger at you and say, well, you had unfair expectations for this guy. Well, you created the guy. The hype for Archie Manning or Arch Manning is not created. It's not created by fans. They obviously become part of it, but fans don't know who's good and who is. Nobody knows that. Nobody knows. Like, there aren't fans. Fans don't have their own scout high school player rankings. They don't know that Arch Manning's the number one quarterback and they don't they don't make that ranking that ranking's just there it's created by

media people it's created by scouts media people then go uh on the full on offensive with the hype and then fans buy into it and then what you end up with is arch manning there's a great video too and again it's easy to dump on manning today and i'm sure look he's not going to be as bad as he was two days ago three days ago i also don't buy that manning is going to be the second coming. There's a lot of the, like, is he adopted memes? I saw one that was one of those fade transition pictures where it starts as Arch, and then it fades and fades and fades, and it becomes Ryan Leaf, which I thought was wonderful.

It just worked out very well. I see a lot of people, a lot of media people basically telling you that you're an asshole. If you criticize Arch and, like, you hold it again. Listen, that comes along with it now. In college football, there is no always just a fucking college kid. No, it's his first start. That ain't the way the world works anymore. These dudes are getting big time NIL deals.

How much is Archie's NIL deal? I keep saying Archie. How much is Arch Manning's NIL deal? That's what I, let me see here. Arch Manning NIL deal. Let's see how much he's making. Arch currently holds the highest name image like this valuation in college sports with a total valuation of six. He has deals with Red Bull, Uber, Panini, Viori, and EA Sports, and has also expanded

autograph and memorabilia deal with Panini America. So the dude's probably making a lot of cash. It's a different type of deal, I guess, than Bryce Underwood, who, like, Michigan's, like, just basically here. But guys making a lot of cash. These dudes are pro athletes. I don't want to hear anything about, oh, they're just college kids, but they ain't college kids.

The person that's, you know, an economics major. and rolls out of bed at 4 o'clock to go to class and gets drunk on Saturdays for the games. That's a college kid, okay? These are not college kids. These are professional athletes. These are adults. These are hired guns. And Arch Manning is a hired gun, and he's going to get a lot of hype because of what his last name is.

And when he doesn't live up to the hype, he's going to catch a lot of shit. Now, my guess is because, and I'll give the Manning people credit here, is that when you think about the Manning's as a whole, they're immature people. Like, I'm sure that there's a lot of learning that you could do at the altar of Peyton, Eli, and his dad, Cooper, even, and Archie Manning. Like, I don't think this guy's going to handle this poorly. Probably going to bounce back. Probably going to play well.

He's not going to be as bad as what we saw. But this idea that you're some scummy person and you're some idiot, if you're going to be critical, sorry, dude, it's 2025. People are going to be critical. That's the way this whole thing works now. Fans are going to be that way. Now, I think the fans I find funny are the Texas fans who hated Quinn Ewers and shit on Quinn Ewers. Every chance they got just waiting to see Arch.

Arch this, arch that, Arch for Heisman. Quinn Ewers, they were thrilled when Quinn Ewers decided to go to the league because they were going to get Arch Manning. And then the first time out for Arch Manning, he looked like shit. Missed a lot of throws. I'm sure he'll bounce back and play better. I think that's fair to say. I don't anticipate that Arch Manning is going to look that shitty again. And they're going to have matchups against shitty teams.

So I don't think Texas is dunzo by any means. That's the beauty of the way the thing is set up now, is that now you can lose a game like that. I wish we had more like this. What was it that Nick Saban said that something about rewarding teams, you know, for the schedule versus like basically not punishing them for losing these kind of games. I forgot exactly what he said. And it's good.

And if they expand the playoff anymore, more of these games can happen. Like, if you're Clemson, you're now battle tested. You played LSU and you're battle tested. And no one's going to hurt you for losing it. Like, if it comes down to you versus somebody else, maybe a team that won a game like that gets in over you. I mean, of course, that's assuming no division victory or whatever conference victory. But you get my point. We want more games like that.

We want more Texas, Ohio State, number one versus three. We want more LSU v. Clemson. We want more Miami versus Notre Dame. Those are the games we want. And expanding the playoff, which inevitably is going to happen, that will allow us to get more of those games. That's why the SEC is forcing the nine-game schedule for the league, and they're forcing teams in the league to have at least one major out-of-conference game.

Set up a world where you benefit from playing those games. Right? Like college basketball doesn't punish you. It actually benefits you. You're like, hey, they lost a couple games. But at least school A played Duke in North Carolina. And they went to the Maui Invitational, played Memphis. And we're going to reward them for that. So we want these matchups. And those matchups in college basketball, nobody sees. Imagine if every week there was a, you know, and by the way, like let's just use LSU. On a year-in, year-out basis, LSU with a nine-game SEC schedule, almost every week it's going to be a gauntlet. This year is going to be. to be a gauntlet. You're going to see Ole Miss, Florida, Alabama. Like, you're going to go down the line, Oklahoma, and just see murderer after murderer after murderer. Imagine a world where Clemson versus LSU is then followed by another out-of-conference game where it's LSU versus Notre Dame, and that kind of shit doesn't hurt you. Now you've got to win those games. Can't just lose them all and say, hey, at least we played them, put us in. But that's better for the game. This week, LSU is playing LaTac. That's the home opener for LSU. Who gives you shit?

But imagine if you followed LSU v. Clemson with LSU v. Notre Dame or LSU, even a name brand school, like one that's not great, but like a Kansas State. Imagine week two, Avery Johnson and Kansas State is taking on LSU. And then later on during the year, like, you want to have one cupcake in there to get right? Okay, fine. You don't want to just like play a total murderer's row. But still, it's good for the game. It's good that we got Texas, Ohio State. And the prevailing thought of the past was if you expand the playoff, the regular season gets watered down.

There was nothing watered down about Clemson and LSU or Notre Dame and Miami or Texas and Ohio State. That wasn't the case. You cannot tell me that watered things down. And Clemson went out. They lost a game, but they're not dead. It used to be, like, when LSU, you know, I keep going back to LSU because that's who I root for. But 10 years ago, if LSU would have lost that game, now you basically have to go undefeated to have a shot. That's not the case anymore.

Oh, you would have had to have won the conference to have a shot. That's not the case anymore. Clemson, I mean, they should win the ACC because it's terrible, but maybe Florida State's pretty fucking good. You know what I'm saying? So maybe that conference will be a little bit tougher after what Florida State. We didn't even bring up Florida State and Alabama talking about all this. Holy shit, we got a lot of stuff to get into. My God, college football was great.

It did not even occur to me to talk about Florida State and Alabama. Shit. Things are great. But anyway, let's get to another episode of this.