Texas coach Steve Sarkisian says Arch Manning is on edge as the Longhorns head into the second half of the season without much margin for College Football Playoff error.
No. 19 Texas is 4-2 after back-to-back losses to unranked opponents. The Longhorns were No. 1 when they lost 27-24 to Oklahoma in Week 6. And then they lost 27-24 to Florida as the No. 7 team in the country in Week 7.
Both of those losses came as Manning committed pivotal fourth-quarter turnovers. Against Oklahoma, Manning threw a pick-6 before leading the Longhorns on a game-tying TD drive. But then he threw another interception that set up OU’s game-winning field goal. Against the Gators, Manning fumbled on Texas’ first play after the 2-minute warning with the Longhorns just shy of midfield and Texas trailing by three.
“I would use the word edgy, and I like it,” Sarkisian told reporters Thursday (via Inside Texas). “He’s edgy right now. And I think that somebody texted me today that we lost the ‘Aw Shucks’ kid, and we created something else. I don’t know if we lost him, we created this, we did, all of us. Y’all included me, the whole thing, right? Everybody on ESPN, we’ve created this. And so we’ll see what comes out of it. But he’s edgy right now. And honestly, I appreciate that about him. At some point, he’s gotta fight back. And the best way for him to fight back is going out and playing really good football with his teammates, and enjoy playing football with his teammates. And so I’m looking forward to watching him compete Saturday night.”
Texas is favored against No. 7 Ole Miss in Week 8 as another loss could eliminate the Longhorns from College Football Playoff contention altogether. In 2025, Texas went 9-3 in the regular season and didn’t make the 12-team field.
While you can understand how all the attention surrounding Manning since he set foot on Texas’ campus can be incredibly hard to ignore for a college-age athlete, Texas and Sarkisian also knew that a bright spotlight would follow Manning when they were recruiting him to Austin.
Sarkisian also didn’t give Manning an effusive vote of confidence following the Florida loss. He said “everything” would be evaluated about the offense following the game and stood by that statement when asked directly if Manning would be included. Monday, ESPN reported that backup QB KJ Lacey would see increased first-team reps in practice ahead of the Ole Miss game.
Those developments, of course, don’t mean that Manning will automatically be benched if he and Texas start slowly on Saturday night. But they also add a level of intrigue that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.
“It just depends, every game’s different,” Sarkisian said when asked if Manning could be removed from a game for non-blowout reasons. “So I think Arch has had a good week of work, he’s prepared himself well. But like the team, we need to play well, so we’ll go from there.”