Texas Quarterback Arch Manning Named to Johnny Unitas Award Watch List

  With the Longhorns on the verge of a new season after back-to-back College Football Playoff semifinal appearances, first-year starting quarterback Arch Manning has been named to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award watch list.

This announcement comes after 13 other watch list nominations, including Manning being named to the Davey O’Brien award watch list on Aug. 7, and about four months before the winner of the award will be announced. The winner of the award will be celebrat ed at the Golden Arm Award ceremony in Baltimore at the Four Seasons Hotel.

If Manning were to be the one invited to Baltimore, he’d be the first Texas quarterback to win the award since Colt McCoy won in 2009, the year Texas last made a national championship appearance. But not only has Manning been placed on the watch list for those two awards, he’s also on the watch list for the Walter Camp National Player of the Year Award and the Maxwell Award.

It would mean a great deal for Manning to win the award, both for Manning and the school. Manning will be entering his redshirt-sophomore year after making two starts last year in place of quarterback Quinn Ewers, who is now with the Miami Dolphi ns.

In his two starts last year, he managed to complete 41-60 passes for 583 yards and four touchdowns, while also throwing two interceptions. He also rushed for 33 yards and a touchdown in one of those starts.

That wasn’t all the action for Manning last season, though; he also appeared in 10 other games for the Longhorns last season. In those games, he attained 356 passing yards and seven touchdowns, not throwing any interceptions

Out of New Orleans, Manning was ranked as the No. 1 player in the nation in the class of 2023. In his senior year, he gathered almost 2,300 passing yards and threw for 34 touchdowns, while also rushing for six more. Those were just a small part of the 8,599 passing yards and 115 touchdowns that he compiled throughout his high school career.

It will be interesting to see how Manning will perform in just 10 days, when No. 1 Texas faces No. 3 Ohio State in Columbus, a team that will also have a first-year starting QB in redshirt-freshman Julian Sayin, who was the No. 1 QB in the 2024 class.

Texas fans can look forward to Manning taking the field against the Buckeyes to begin an attention-filled sophomore campaign on Aug. 30 at 11 AM CT on FOX. As of now, Ohio State is the slight favorite.