On Wednesday, the Texas football program ended its 2025 season on a high note with a 41-27 win over Michigan in the Cirtus Bowl. While Texas was hoping to get a bid to the college football playoff and compete for a championship, they ultimately had to settle for a strong performance against a good Michigan team to close out their season.
After the game, Texas quarterback Arch Manning was told that his uncle, Peyton Manning, had also played in this game and won the MVP honors, which the younger Manning did not.
Arch Manning then had a savage response.
“Nothing against the Citrus Bowl, but I think he played it twice,” Manning said after the game, per Eric C. Henry of Horns247 on X, formerly Twitter, via Bleacher Report. “I don't want to have to play in it twice.”
Indeed, the Longhorns will certainly hope to not be competing in the Citrus Bowl again next year but instead have their sights set on the college football playoff, where they participated in each of the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Last year, Texas lost in the Cotton Bowl to the eventual champion Ohio State Buckeyes, while the previous year, they lost to the Washington Huskies, with a spot in the national championship game on the line.
Manning was up and down in his first full year as the starting quarterback for the Longhorns. He stumbled out of the gates a bit with a rough performance against Ohio State, and also had some puzzlingly mediocre stat lines against some of the cellar dweller teams on Texas' early-season schedule.
However, he started to turn things around as the season wore on, eventually turning himself into one of the better quarterbacks in the SEC with strong performances against elite opponents like Texas A&M.
In any case, the Longhorns will now set their sights on the 2026 season.
