With a chance to zing his uncle, Arch Manning ran with it.
After Manning orchestrated a massive 41-27 Citrus Bowl win for No. 13 Texas over No. 18 Michigan and earned the game’s MVP award Wednesday, the quarterback admitted he doesn’t wish to run it back in 2026.
Rather, he has bigger goals going into the new year — ones beyond what NFL legend Peyton Manning did in college while playing for Tennessee.
“Nothing against the Citrus Bowl, but I think [Peyton] played it twice, I don’t want to have to play it twice,” the younger Manning said with a smile after the victory.
Peyton led Tennessee to two Citrus Bowl games in back-to-back seasons in 1995 and 1996.
The Volunteers won both bowl games and finished in the top 10 of the AP Top 25.
Yet, the Hall of Famer was playing in a college football era that was without a definite national championship game or the College Football Playoff.
The current edition of the Citrus Bowl is not within the six bowl games that incorporate the 12-team playoff format.
In other words, there are better things to chase down.
Wednesday was a good start toward that for Peyton’s nephew.
Arch threw for 221 yards and two touchdowns and also used his legs to rush for 155 yards and an additional two touchdowns.
He notched two key fourth-down conversions, including one for 19 yards to set up a touchdown run for Christian Carter, who started the game after Texas’ top three running backs entered the transfer portal.
It marked another 10-win season for the Longhorns (10-3) — a success after being left out of the College Football Playoff despite being the preseason No. 1 team.
Texas will be ranked high again next year after Arch decided to return to Texas rather than enter the 2026 NFL Draft.
For Michigan, it was a sour end to what has been a drama-filled season after former coach Sherrone Moore was fired for having a relationship with a staff member and was later arrested and charged with three crimes after allegedly breaking into the woman’s home.
Former Utah coach Kyle Whittingham was hired to replace Moore and will have a lot to clean up.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
