When you’re the winningest coach at two different SEC football programs, you can say what you want, when you want. And for Steve Spurrier, his legendary status as the king of one-liners and unfiltered opinions reverberated again this week when he questioned Arch Manning’s status as the Heisman frontrunner ahead of the 2025 season.
If you were expecting a love letter to the Manning family, it was never going to happen from the former Florida coach.
It might not have been his favorite dig, but the Old Ball Coach’s “you can’t spell Citrus without U-T” at a Gators booster function in 1997 was a public slam of Tennessee, led then by quarterback Peyton Manning. The two previous seasons, Spurrier and Florida trounced the Vols, keeping them out of the national championship picture.
Tennessee went 45-5 under Phil Fulmer from 1995-98 with three of those losses coming against Spurrier. And during Manning’s tenure, the Vols were winless, including a 33-20 setback his senior season despite a 353-yard, three-touchdown performance.
“It bothers me that we never did beat Florida, but hey, I can’t control the way other people view Tennessee or view my career,” Manning said after the loss. “I’m sure Coach Spurrier will go make a few more jokes. That’s fine. He’s got a good ballclub.”
Twenty-eight years later, Spurrier’s infamous cut has surfaced again in a different light, but around those same rivalry parameters. Arch Manning, the nephew of Peyton and Eli, enters his first season as the Longhorns’ starter this fall as a former top-ranked recruit in the country with considerable hype for one of the nation’s playoff title contenders.
He redshirted during the 2023 season and played behind Quinn Ewers last fall, showing off in spot duty and in two starts against inferior competition with the Longhorns’ QB1 on the mend. Manning’s nine touchdown passes as a backup isn’t enough to impress Spurrier, who needs to see more.
“I think most people are picking Texas to win the SEC,” Spurrier said, via Another Dooley Noted Podcast. “They’ve got Arch Manning already winning the Heisman), too. My question is, if he’s that good, how come they let Quinn Ewers play all the time last year? He was a seventh-round pick.”
Let’s be honest — it’s a lazy take from Spurrier. Ewers was a No. 1 recruit, too, and one year prior had led Texas to its first Big 12 championship in 15 years. Ewers was one completion in the corner of the end zone away from beating Washington and getting the Longhorns to the national championship game prior to the program’s SEC arrival and was, by most accounts, a top 10 player at the position nationally.
In three years as the starter on the Forty Acres, Ewers completed 64.9% of his passes for 9,128 yards and 68 touchdowns. Texas is the only program with consecutive playoff berths and Ewers is a big reason for that. His play on fourth-and-13 against Arizona State is an all-timer that cemented himself as a program legend.
Quinn Ewers needed two throws to save Texas’ season in the Peach Bowl and seal his legacy once and for all
Chris Hummer
However, according to Spurrier and others, if Manning was as good as advertised, he would’ve unseated Ewers and been the guy for the Longhorns.
Getting back to Spurrier’s wisecracks, he has previously revealed most of his catchphrases were fed to him from friends and boosters alike; he was merely a public vessel to chide opponents. Regardless, no one delivers at the mic quite like the man in the visor and a decade into coaching retirement, Spurrier continues to move the needle.
From Tennessee’s rich orange, to the burnt orange of Texas and even Clemson’s brightest hue, Spurrier’s never particularly liked that color or anything that comes with it on the gridiron. With that, it should come as no surprise he’s not sold on Arch Manning just yet.
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