Arch Manning is the preseason Heisman Trophy favorite, but he's not officially on the radar of the award named after his family. Yet.
The watch list for the 2025 Manning Award, which recognizes the nation's top quarterback, was released Thursday with 27 different quarterbacks making the cut. Manning, whose family is the namesake of the award, wasn't one of them.
Manning entered the Texas program as one of the most hyped recruits in college football history and is taking over the starting job after two seasons of backing up Quinn Ewers. He was the favorite to go first overall in the 2026 NFL Draft, until his grandfather Archie said he expected him to stay at Texas for his senior season.
There is a reason for Manning not making the Manning Award watch list, though. Every quarterback who made the cut saw significantly more action last year than the 21-year-old, who appeared in 10 games but started only two for Longhorns.
The Manning Award's announcement makes clear that additional quarterbacks will be added to the watch list as the season progresses, and you would figure that Manning will be an easy choice if he performs as expected. And if he is one of the frontrunners, we'll see how he does with a voting panel that includes multiple family members.
The Manning family might even be in on some kind of joke here, as Archie is directly quote in the release saying they will review the newcomers:
"We're looking forward to another exciting year of college football," said Archie Manning. "I'd like to thank the Sugar Bowl for continuing to build the tradition of the Manning Award which now has over 20 years of honoring the top quarterbacks in the country for the entire football season. This year we have another great group on our preseason Watch List; in October, we'll review the transfers and other newcomers and then boost the Watch List with the best from that group."
If you're curious, here's the full list of quarterbacks on the preseason watch list, which includes Penn State's Drew Allar and LSU's Garrett Nussmeier, the new favorites to go first overall in the draft next year.
Manning Award preseason watch list
Drew Allar, Sr., Penn State
Luke Altmyer, Sr., Illinois
CJ Bailey, So., NC State
Rocco Becht, Jr., Iowa State
Tucker Gleason, Sr., Toledo
Taylen Green, Sr., Arkansas
Josh Hoover, Jr., TCU
Blake Horvath, Sr., Navy
Katin Houser, Jr., East Carolina
Keyone Jenkins, Jr., FIU
Kevin Jennings, Jr., SMU
Avery Johnson, Jr., Kansas State
Colton Joseph, So., Old Dominion
Haynes King, Sr., Georgia Tech
Cade Klubnik, Sr., Clemson
Sam Leavitt, So., Arizona State
Maddux Madsen, Jr., Boise State
Owen McCown, So., UTSA
Behren Morton, Sr., Texas Tech
Parker Navarro, Sr., Ohio
Garrett Nussmeier, Sr., LSU
Diego Pavia, Sr., Vanderbilt
Marcel Reed, So., Texas A&M
Sawyer Robertson, Sr., Baylor
LaNorris Sellers, So., South Carolina
Brendan Sorsby, Jr., Cincinnati
Nicholas Vattiato, Sr., Middle Tennessee
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