Arch Manning didn’t have the greatest debut at Texas’ spring game on April 15, but head coach Steve Sarkisian has a calming message for Longhorns fans.
“He’s on the right trajectory that he should be on,” Sarkisian said recently of Manning, who hit 5-of-13 for 30 passing yards in the spring game, on 105.3 The Fan. “He’s a true freshman in college. He really should still be in high school. Just finished his first semester on the Forty Acres.”
Manning, of course, comes from football royalty.
He’s the nephew of both Peyton and Eli, grandson of Archie, and the oldest son of Cooper.
Manning is one of college football’s highest-touted freshmen ahead of the 2023 college football season, and chose Texas over schools such as Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss, and Georgia among several others.
“There’s a definite transition there,” Sarkisian said. “There’s a transition to college life, there’s a transition to the scheme that he hasn’t been accustomed to, there’s a transition to the speed of the game and how it goes.”
“There were a lot of really good moments that Archie had throughout the spring, and there was a couple tough days.”
Additionally, Sarkisian acknowledged that the spring game “wasn’t [Manning’s] best game” but also said “we weren’t great around him either.”
Manning competed with Quinn Ewers and Maalik Murphy for positioning on the quarterback depth chart in spring, and in Texas’ spring game, Ewers completed 16-of-23 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown — solidifying his position as the Longhorns’ starting quarterback.
But Murphy also flashed his potential while Manning struggled, as he threw a 79-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter.
The Longhorns will begin their season against Rice on Sept. 2.