ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is high on Arch Manning, obviously, and offered a bold prediction ahead of the Week 1 matchup between Texas and Ohio State. In a new ESPN segment dubbed “Crystal Paul,” Finebaum looked into the future.

Manning has a lot of pressure to succeed this season due to the immense hype and, of course, his last name. Not only that, the Longhorns are the preseason No. 1 team taking on the No. 3 Buckeyes, the defending champions.

But Finebaum is quite confident we’ll see a masterful performance from Manning and Texas. It’ll be all the more impressive if he does it considering Texas has to travel to Columbus.

“Guess who? Arch ‘Madness,’” Finebaum said on SportsCenter. “It’s going to be Arch ‘Madness’ after the game. Manning leads the Longhorns to a smashing victory. I’ve been accused of being a little bit too high on Arch. I don’t think that you can be high enough on this young man. He is outstanding. I know the last name, we all do, but he is ready for this moment, and he is going to perform beautifully next Saturday. I can’t wait.”

How high are expectations? Well the good news is, Ohio State is the betting favorite (-2.5) over Texas, per Bet MGM. But if the line swings in the favor of Texas, it’s likely because of Manning.

Manning came to Texas in the Class of 2023 as a five-star recruit. He was also the top-ranked recruit overall in that recruiting cycle. However, through two seasons, he’s seen relatively limited playing time at Texas. Last season, when he did get on the field, including replacing Quinn Ewers as an injury replacement, he completed 67.8 percent of his passes for 939 yards and nine touchdowns to two interceptions. He also rushed for 108 yards and another two touchdowns.

Now, Texas is turning the keys to the offense over to Manning, going into his third college season. However, this isn’t a team where he needs to become a superstar early. Instead, he can focus on fitting into the team.

“He doesn’t need to be a superhero,” Josh Pate said. “This is not Xbox. It’s the real world. Steve Sarkisian, I was there in the spring, he said, ‘We built towards this year.’ Meaning they stacked their entire roster and built their entire roster of their guys to work around Arch Manning, to where it doesn’t need to be the Arch show. It needs to be the Texas show, just sort of featuring Arch Manning. That’s what I expect.”