Texas QB Arch Manning banished below the top 40 in ESPN's quarterback rankings

Texas QB Arch Manning banished below the top 40 in ESPN's quarterback rankings originally appeared on The Sporting News

The Arch Manning experience, to this point in the season, has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. The heir-apparent to the Manning namesake, Arch spent his first two seasons of college football playing understudy to quarterback Quinn Ewers, only seeing the field in a reserve capacity.

But now, the reigns are in his hands, and the keys to one of college football's biggest and most storied programs fall under his stewardship. Preseason expectations listed Manning as an early favorite to finish the season as the Heisman trophy winner -- not just the best quarterback, but the best player in all of college football. Period.

Four games into the season, and he's undershot the preseason hype by a country mile. It's not all his fault; the voices of the media had all but coronated him as the greatest quarterback prospect in generations. The inevitable ruler of the gridiron. The next great signal caller in a bloodline akin to football royalty.

ESPN, in particular, has not been impressed in early returns from Arch Manning. In a recent article, the site ranked every power four starting quarterback to this point in the season. If you were looking for the Texas Longhorn's gunslinger, you'd be scrolling for quite a while before you finally come across the name you're hoping to find.

As far as power four quarterbacks go, Arch Manning sits 41st overall.

With a QBR of 57.2, he's fallen well short of Heisman pace to say the least. The bottom half of the list is far from where anyone expected Arch to land.

Fortunately, the season is only a quarter of the way through, and Texas has plenty of time to right the ship, still ranked in the top 10 and only holding one loss to the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.

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