The Texas Longhorns have no room for error moving forward after dropping back-to-back games and falling from No. 1 in the nation all the way to No. 19 in the rankings. For embattled head coach Steve Sarkisian, that could mean giving starting quarterback Arch Manning a very short leash moving forward.
On Thursday’s edition of Get Up, college football analyst Josh Pate declared that Manning is on “thin ice” ahead of Saturday’s game against No. 7 Ole Miss. He pointed out that last week’s Florida game was the missed opportunity to “bounce back” from their loss to Oklahoma. He then noted that Ole Miss is a better team than the Florida team that beat them was, so even if Manning has a good game, it might not be enough to get the win.
“I feel weird even talking like that, but the answer might be yes. The answer is, he is on thin ice,” Pate said. “Even Steve Sarkisian has had to sort of acknowledge that they’re giving K.J. Lacey some first team reps, but then again, he always takes first team reps. I trust the reporting around that program that you’re probably on thin ice and needing to make a move there. You mentioned the optimum phrase there… bounce back. Wasn’t that last week too, though? Last week, against a pass defense in the 100s in the Florida Gators.
“That was the perfect bounce back. I want to say they had like five total passes completed beyond the line of scrimmage. That was the opportunity. Ole Miss comes in this week and here’s the difference between last week and this week; you can get beat this week, but they may make you trade points to keep up with them. Florida last week took some assistance on your end. You can play good and Trinidad Chambliss can beat you. Again, without a good running game, this falls on the shoulders of Arch Manning.”
Manning’s Struggles
On paper, Arch Manning seems to be playing fine, if underachieving a bit. He’s enjoyed a college passer rating of over 150 in each of the Longhorns’ last two games, both of which were 27-24 losses.
The much more serious issue is how and when those struggles have emerged. Manning has been responsible for key turnovers that stalled momentum and ended comeback attempts in the fourth quarter of both losses.
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And so while it may look like he’s improving in certain aspects of his game, namely passing accuracy and touchdown rate, his turnovers are becoming far too alarming for Sarkisian to simply overlook.
At this point it’s very doubtful that Manning will be satisfied with his production at Texas to the point where he forgoes his final year of college eligibility to enter the 2027 NFL Draft. Barring an unprecedented turnaround over these final six games, this season will likely go down as a major disappointment for him.
