The watchlist for the Manning Award has been announced, and there seems to be one glaring omission: Texas Longhorns’ Arch Manning. The award, named after Arch’s grandfather, Archie Manning, and his uncles, Peyton and Eli, is given to the best quarterback in college football by the Sugar Bowl Committee.
Amid Arch’s snub, three players who have emerged as the favorites to win the coveted award are South Carolina Gamecocks’ LaNorris Sellers, LSU Tigers’ Garrett Nussmeier, and Clemson Tigers’ Cade Klubnik. The three are also favorites to win the Heisman, along with Arch.
🏆The Manning Award, presented by the @Allstate #SugarBowl
👀 2025 Watch List pic.twitter.com/eK45Z9Y0RF
— Manning Award (@ManningAward) August 14, 2025
It’s notorious that the youngest of the Mannings wasn’t named to the watchlist, considering he has remained the clear favorite to win the Heisman Trophy throughout the preseason. According to BetMGM, the Texas signal-caller has odds of +600 to win the Heisman. His opening odds were +900.
Many in the media have opined that this is not a logical set of odds, as Arch Manning has started only two games in his college career. After all, he’s still a largely unknown commodity. Manning agreed to this notion during interactions with the press during the SEC media days in July.
HC Steve Sarkisian’s update on Arch Manning’s preseason preparations
On Monday, Aug. 11, Steve Sarkisian spoke to the media after practice. He gave a detailed update on Arch Manning’s preparations for his debut as a full-on starter and set a roadmap for what’s to come before their season opener against Ohio State on August 30.
“I don’t know if I have necessarily expectations, you know,” said Sarkisian. “I think, when we visited with Arch coming out of Saturday, there were probably five or six plays that I’m very confident he’s going to make as we move forward, you know. Saturday was, what, our ninth practice of fall camp? It’d be like, essentially a preseason game. It’d be like playing the Hall of Fame Game, right? So, to think that we’re a fine-tuned machine in that practice? Probably not realistic.”
Sarkisian also opened up about the things the player has done wrong during preseason training camp. While he said that Arch Manning hasn’t done anything outrageously bad, he noted that there was still work to be done for him to become season-ready.
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