Despite just 90 pass attempts during the 2024 season, Texas Longhorns redshirt sophomore quarterback Arch Manning is currently the betting favorite to win the 2025 Heisman Trophy Award. There are a couple of factors in play here… first, the last name, which we can't just ignore since it's steeped in college football history. Second, and far more importantly, Manning was incredibly impressive in limited action playing behind Quinn Ewers last season.

But it hasn't been completely smooth sailing for the son of Cooper Manning since he arrived at Texas. Arch threw just five passes during a redshirt first season in 2023, and last season, despite many calling for him to take over for Ewers, Manning had to sit by on the Longhorns bench for the majority of the season, watching on as Texas made a run to the College Football Playoff semifinal for the second consecutive season.

Now as Arch Manning to takes the reins from Quinn Ewers in Austin, there's a chance that more rough times are heading his way. Cooper Manning knows it won't be smooth sailing from here on out, and from the sounds of it, he's welcoming the hard times that lie ahead for his son.

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“You don’t want your kiddos to come home and be unhappy, but at the same time, sometimes going through some bumps in the road are good,” Cooper Manning told Dan Patrick. “Arch is going to have plenty more of those. These are the real ones, when you get beat this year and have bad games. I mean you know how they do it in the media, they crown you way too early and then they jump on and kill you. So he’s getting way too much attention and way too much credit and he’s going to struggle. They’re going to say he’s not as good, he’s overrated, it’s coming, everybody know it.”

Cooper Manning isn't wrong. In fact, he knows it firsthand how this works as the older brother of Peyton and Eli Manning, a pair of multiple-time Super Bowl winning quarterbacks who have had their share of rocky moments throughout their Hall of Fame careers.

Best case scenario for Arch is that he goes on to have a career on par with his uncles. But even if he does, there will be no shortage of lows with the many highs coming his way.