College football takes

[PurplePorsche]

A few things about Arch (this from a Texan with close ties to UT) -- he was never coming out this year. Cooper has carefully orchestrated his path, including NILs, playing time, etc. Backing up Ewers was a plan they signed off on -- if they were not ok with it, Arch would have gone elsewhere. On his play? I can only tell you that Arch outplayed Ewers last season, and many thought Sark blew it last year by sticking with Quinn -- who dribbled down his leg in big games. But Arch seems to have regressed, which is puzzling because it's not like he's a freshman thrown into a role for which he is not ready. And it's really the entirety of his game -- the accuracy is not there; he is not running when he should, and he is taking off when he shouldn't. Overall, it's been pretty bad. I would have expected that after getting a few cupcake wins following the Ohio State loss he would have settled down, but he returned to (poor) form against Florida.

[StickierBuns]

A few things about Arch (this from a Texan with close ties to UT) -- he was never coming out this year.  Cooper has carefully orchestrated his path, including NILs, playing time, etc.  Backing up Ewers was a plan they signed off on -- if they were not ok with it, Arch would have gone elsewhere.  On his play?  I can only tell you that Arch outplayed Ewers last season, and many thought Sark blew it last year by sticking with Quinn -- who dribbled down his leg in big games.  But Arch seems to have regressed, which is puzzling because it's not like he's a freshman thrown into a role for which he is not ready.  And it's really the entirety of his game -- the accuracy is not there; he is not running when he should, and he is taking off when he shouldn't.  Overall, it's been pretty bad.  I would have expected that after getting a few cupcake wins following the Ohio State loss he would have settled down, but he returned to (poor) form against Florida.

I've heard the same, I have a buddy in Houston who went to UT. It wasn't about 'outplaying' Ewers, it was about being respectful to Ewers and his equity in the team which Arch was fine with. You're spot on here IMO.

[Montana Tom]

Arch Manning...mostly hype, subpar performance on the field.

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What is even weirder is how poorly the gophers recruit Midwest talent.  The cream of the FCS is in the Midwest and loaded with kids from the Midwest,  but I rarely hear about the gophers scouts sniffing around regional kids,  been that way for years despite them being a bottom tier division 1 destination.  They need to find some farm kids that grew up on meat and taters and built their muscles by working all day ( getting pretty rare anymore though,   but they are still out there. )

Jimmy, I've thought that for a long time.
NDSU in Fargo has been able to recruit some of the midwest's best, followed by SDSU, U South Dakota, UND and now Montana has started to tap the pipeline with that Eli Gilman kid from Dassel-Cokato high school in Minnesota.

Proof is in the pudding, too.  How has that kid from Dassel-Cokato done in his second year starting?  He's averaging 6.8 yards per rushing attempt (better than his 6.6 YPA last year when he won the Jerry Rice Award).

How do these kids fare at these FCS schools?  A lot of them from all these schools end up in the NFL, that's how.
Just like Carson Wentz did.

[Still Hurtn]

I am a Longhorn fan since mid late 80's move from MN to Central Texas. My name for him is Ass Manning. His play is terrible and Sarks playing calling for him is not good either. Mold to the kids talents not put the kid in a mold. Might look ugly but it would get more wins and be more effective.