After three listless performances, Texas finally looked like a national title contender in its Week 4 win over Sam Houston State. While the entire college football world was elated to see Arch Manning finally blow up, the quarterback's mother was not as happy.
Manning ended the 55-0 win with 309 passing yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions and two rushing touchdowns. One of his biggest highlights of the game came on a first-quarter run, when he bulldozed his way into the end zone before letting a Bearkats linebacker know about it.
Manning, who stood over the downed defender, came as close to a taunting call without receiving a flag. He might have avoided the penalty, but the quarterback received something worse: post-game criticism from his mother.
“Probably a little much there,” Manning said, via ESPN. “My mom was pretty mad about it. I think it was some built-up frustration for the past few weeks.”
Arch Manning after scoring this TD 😤 pic.twitter.com/39fEnfclXi
— ESPN (@espn) September 21, 2025
Manning now has 14 total touchdowns through four games — nine through the air and five on the ground. He has scored at least one rushing touchdown in three straight games, including two in each of his last two outings.
Week 4 marked Manning's season-high in passing yards. He did his damage while completing 18 of his 21 pass attempts, another season-high, while avoiding an interception for the first time in 2025.
Arch Manning leads Texas into bye week
Although Texas might not have had the first month that it imagined, the team enters its Week 5 bye on a high note. The Longhorns have one week to prepare for a grueling upcoming stretch, beginning with a road matchup against a struggling Florida team.
Texas entered the 2025 college football season ranked No. 1 but dropped to No. 8 by the end of Week 4. As upsetting as that demotion has been, it has not been nearly as frustrating as Florida's start to the year.
The Gators were No. 15 in the preseason AP poll and started the season with an encouraging 55-0 rout of Long Island. However, they have not been able to get another win since then, going 1-3 to begin the year.
After suffering an 18-16 upset loss to USF in Week 2, Florida has suffered consecutive double-digit losses to top-10-ranked teams. They were mildly competitive in a 20-10 loss to LSU, but were completely dominated in a 26-7 Week 4 loss to Miami.
After facing Florida, Texas will travel to Dallas for the annual college football Red River Rivalry game against Oklahoma. The Longhorns do not return to Austin until they host Vanderbilt on Nov. 1.
