ESPN makes wild prediction for Arch Manning and Texas Longhorns football
ESPN made a wild prediction this week for Arch Manning and the Texas Longhorns football program. This week, ESPN took a look at how a 64-team College Football Playoff could look for the 2024 season. ESPN broke down the seeding process — they have Texas as a No. 1 seed in the "East Regional" — and […]
ESPN made a wild prediction this week for Arch Manning and the Texas Longhorns football program.
This week, ESPN took a look at how a 64-team College Football Playoff could look for the 2024 season.
ESPN broke down the seeding process — they have Texas as a No. 1 seed in the "East Regional" — and they predicted how a basketball-like tournament would play out.
In the regional final (the Elite Eight), ESPN has Texas beating the Ole Miss Rebels with Arch coming off the bench to save the day in the game's final minutes.
That game would be of special importance for Arch due to the fact that much of his family (his father, Cooper, his uncle, Eli, and his grandparents, Archie and Olivia) attended Ole Miss.
From ESPN: It's an instant classic with two coaches — Steve Sarkisian and Kiffin — who worked together at USC under Pete Carroll and know each other extremely well. The first big play of the game comes on defense when Ole Miss defensive end Jared Ivey sacks Ewers, forcing a fumble that Princely Umanmielen returns 24 yards for a touchdown. Ewers bounces back to throw two second-half touchdown passes, but stands in there and takes a wicked shot to the ribs on the final one. In a Hollywood-type ending, Arch Manning comes off the bench in the final minutes to steer the Longhorns to the win over the alma mater of his father, grandfather and uncle.
From there, ESPN thinks Texas would beat the Georgia Bulldogs in the Final Four before taking down the Ohio State Buckeyes in the national championship game, winning by a score of 41-37.
From ESPN: Ohio State has momentum on its side in the fourth quarter, but Texas' Ethan Burke and Anthony Hill Jr. take down a scrambling Will Howard on a game-changing sack. The Buckeyes are forced to punt, and Oregon State transfer Silas Bolden leaves a vapor trail down the left sideline on a 73-yard punt return for the winning touchdown. As the final seconds tick down, Bevo appears on the field sporting some serious Horns Up bling and a burnt orange sign that reads, "Texas is back!"
A 64-team College Football Playoff would certainly provide some entertaining moments. And Texas definitely has a squad that could run the table — especially since they have two high end quarterbacks in Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning. But it seems unlikely that a 64-team playoff will ever come to fruition. It would simply take too much time and it would add too many games to the college football season.
16 teams and maybe even 32 teams could make some sense (though really, 16 is more than enough). But 64 is a bit much.
As for how the new 12-team playoff will actually look in 2024, the Longhorns, fresh off a playoff appearance in 2023, are certainly one of the favorites to reach the new look College Football Playoff.
