Arch Manning, Texas football have ‘no excuses’ not to win national championship

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College football season has arrived. Now it’s time for teams to get down to business and start winning football games. The expanded College Football Playoff gives the teams at the top of the rankings some breathing room so they don’t need to be perfect like Indiana was last year to have a shot at a national championship, but there’s still a lot of pressure to perform early in the season.

One of the main schools that will be under a microscope this year is the Texas Longhorns. They lost three games last season and missed the CFP. Many people are expecting much more out of Texas this season, including ESPN’s Jordan Reid. On Friday’s episode of “First Take,” Reid explained why Arch Manning and Texas have “no excuse not to win a national title this year.”

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“I don’t think there’s anybody with more pressure on them this season than Arch Manning, Steve Sarkasian and Texas,” said Reid. “They have no excuse not to win a national title this year in my opinion. They revamped the offensive line, they brought in two impressive running backs in Malik Brown and Hollywood Smothers. And oh yeah, you you bring in Cam Coleman from Auburn as well. So Arch Manning has everything that he needs to succeed. Now he has to go out there and do it.”

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Manning and the Longhorns stumbled out of the gate with a loss to Ohio State last season. This year they’ll have a rematch with the Buckeyes in Week 2. Last year OSU was the No. 3 team in the nation during their game. This year they’re No. 1. Tennessee also has a road game against a ranked Tennessee team in Week 4. We should know if the Longhorns are for real by the end of September.

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