Arch Manning's Leadership, Growth Praised By Texas HC Steve Sarkisian Ahead of 2026 CFB Season
Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian praised quarterback Arch Manning's leadership and growth during an interview with ESPN's Matt Barrie on Thursday from SEC Media Days.
"A year ago, going into the season, Arch Manning wasn't on social media saying, 'I'm going to be the first pick of the draft.'
"He wasn't on social media saying I'm going to win the Heisman Trophy. He just worked really hard. He was a really good teammate. And then when we had some struggles as a team, and he had some struggles, everybody was almost like they wanted to blame him for not playing good because he didn't fulfill their prophesies of what he was supposed to be.
"But that didn't change him. All he continued to do was work hard, be a great teammate. I thought his teammates did a great job of supporting him, and when he got on the other side of that adversity and he played great the second half of the season for us, he didn't go on social media and say, 'See, I told you so.'
"And he hasn't done that all offseason. All he's continuing to do is work really hard, be a great teammate. I think he's evolved to become a better leader than he was at this time last year. But that's what you love about him. He's a real guy. He never plays plays blame. He never says, 'I told you so.' He just works hard, and we're fortunate to have him."
Manning and the Longhorns dealt with their fair share of adversity last year after starting the season at No. 1. They started 3-2 after losses to No. 3 Ohio State (14-7) in the opener and unranked Florida in their fifth contest (29-21).
However, the Longhorns rebounded to win seven of their last eight games, including home wins over No. 9 Vanderbilt (34-31), No. 3 Texas A&M (27-17) and No. 18 Michigan in the Citrus Bowl (41-27). Texas missed out on the College Football Playoff.
Manning got better as the year went on and completed 61.4 percent of his passes for 26 touchdowns (seven interceptions) and 3,163 passing yards (7.8 yards per attempt). He also rushed for 399 yards and 10 scores.
This year's Texas team has great expectations again, and it's easy to feel good about them in part because of the Longhorns' strong finish.
The Longhorns are clearly depending on Manning on and off the field to help them get to the national championship.
"We need a different side of Arch if we want to get somewhere," linebacker Colin Simmons said at SEC Media Days, per ESPN's Andrea Adelson.
"So, Arch definitely brought that side of him out and I feel like as long as we trust and believe in Arch as a team and never look past him or look down at him, we're going to be OK."
Sarkisian built off that point.
"He had never been the starter," Sarkisian said, per Adelson. "A lot of us were pushing Arch to become the leader because it was his team. Arch always took the idea, 'I haven't earned it yet. It was almost ingrained in him from his grandpa. You've got to earn everything you get. It was the whole NIL, it was the leadership, it was all these things. So ironically, it took failure. It took all this adversity that he had to go through for him to get on the other side of it.
"That's really when the team, as much as they loved him before, that's when the respect kicked in because they're like, 'That guy's mentally tough and he's physically tough to get on the other side of that and now play the way that he's playing the second half of the season. What Colin is saying is, 'Give us more of that.' That's really what Arch has been doing, and they've been feeding off of him. You can feel it that this is his team."
Texas has a few tough games on the schedule this year, including home vs. Ohio State and Ole Miss, at Tennessee, LSU and Texas A&M and its annual rivalry game vs. Oklahoma. So Manning and the Longhorns have their challenges as they look to take a big step forward from last season.
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