A Look Ahead for Steve Sarkisian, Arch Manning, and Texas Football
By the time you read this story, The University of Texas Longhorns likely will have gone into Columbus and beaten Ohio State on August 30, avenging last year’s College Football Playoff semifinal loss and firming up their status as a big favorite to win the title this season.
Or they will have lost to the defending champion Buckeyes, which will make for a few panicked online posts and cranky radio call-ins … but still leave the Horns among the favorites to win it all.
Such is the reality of college football in year two of the expanded playoff format, and UT’s second year in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Unlike in the old days of just bowl games, the Bowl Championship Series, or even the more recent four-team playoff, your season isn’t ruined if you lose a game or two. Nor are conference championships required to make it into the playoffs, though the SEC’s preseason media poll favored UT to win the championship game over Georgia this year. But either way, you’ve got to win all your games in January.
“The standard is the standard,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said at the SEC Media Days in July, borrowing a phrase from Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin that has caught on in the Texas locker room. “And [the standard is] competing for championships year in and year out.”
With Sarkisian heading into his fifth season, 23 Longhorns picked in the last two NFL drafts, and all of Sark’s recruiting classes fully coming into their own, the Horns have moved into a new epoch. The 5-7 team from Sark’s first year in 2021 is firmly in the rearview. So are the double-digit wins and College Football Playoff losses of the previous two seasons. The past is the past. The program has been built. The bar has been raised.
“These guys are beyond [thinking] let’s get there,” Sarkisian said during spring practice. “It’s let’s go win, because this is what we’re used to doing.”
With or without the SEC crown, anything less than an appearance in the national championship game in Miami will feel like backward motion, while a win would give the Horns its first title since Mack Brown and Vince Young’s 2005 team. Here are a few things to look forward to and watch out for between now and January.
THE ARCH-QB
Arch Manning’s full name is Archibald, after his College Football Hall of Famer grandfather. But “arch” is also a Greek-rooted prefix, meaning “to begin” or “to rule.” And so, after two long years backing up Quinn Ewers with no thought toward the transfer portal, it’s the 21-year-old junior’s time.
He’s already the Heisman Trophy favorite. The attention on the Manning heir at SEC Media Days was at the Tim Tebow or Johnny Manziel level—except that only happened for those guys after they had won a national championship or Heisman.
Manning would be the first person to say it’s not deserved yet. He doesn’t want attention simply because he was a hot recruit or is descended from football royalty—Eli and Peyton are his uncles, while his father, Cooper, was a wide receiver. He wants to go out and earn it.
“The thing about Arch is, from the day he arrived, there’s been a real sense of humility about him,” Sarkisian said. “When it comes to his work ethic and the kind of teammate he is, he’s like any other guy. And he also has fun doing it.”
All of his teammates—because they all get asked about him—see that he is ready.
“Arch freshman year to Arch now is a night and day difference,” said fifth-year defensive back Michael Taaffe. “He’s playing so smart, so mature, so calm. And then, oh, by the way … he’s also got a really good arm.”
Manning’s even ready for the tough parts. “Sark says you’re going to get booed,” a media member mentioned in the spring. “Hell yeah!” the QB blurted out in reply, before apologizing for the light profanity with a Cheshire grin.
RIVALS AND ROAD TRIPS
The bigger the SEC gets, the less you see of the rest of the conference. After all those years of waiting, even Texas and Texas A&M are not yet guaranteed to play each other every season. Fortunately, this is the year the Aggies come to Austin for the first time since 2010.
After a first-year conference season that brought marquee home games against Georgia and Florida but lacked glamorous road trips (sorry, Fayetteville), traveling Longhorns fans will soon set out for the Swamp in Gainesville (one of the SEC’s loudest atmospheres) as well as Athens, where potentially the biggest game of the year will take place “between the hedges” of Sanford Stadium.
NEW OLD FACES
The Longhorns had last year’s leading rusher in the SEC in junior running back Quintrevion Wisner. “Some of you probably don’t even know that,” Sarkisian teased the media. Joining him in the backfield will be sophomore CJ Baxter (aka “C4”), who returns from a knee injury that cost him all of 2024. Beyond Baxter, standouts from the 2023 recruiting class also include Manning, linebacker Anthony Hill Jr., defensive back Malik Muhammad, and offensive lineman Trevor Goosby.
Another familiar face will join the sideline: Duane Akina, who coached under Brown during the glory years and counts Thorpe Award winners Michael Huff and Aaron Ross among his greatest players. Now the defensive passing game coordinator, Akina should be a boost to an already-loaded secondary.
THE NUMBERS
12 - Players from last year’s Longhorns team selected in the 2025 NFL draft, the most for UT since the draft was shortened to seven rounds.
22 - High school recruits who enrolled early for the spring semester, though one of them still could not practice: Jonah Williams, who was busy playing center field for Jim Schlossnagle’s baseball team.
1 - New uniform number for defensive lineman Colin Simmons, who previously wore No. 11. Why number one? “Because I’m the one,” Simmons said. (So is Ryan Wingo, however—the sophomore wide receiver traded No. 5 for No.1 on the offense.)
3.31 - The team’s current grade point average after the spring semester. Sarkisian noted that it was just 2.32 when he was hired in 2021, adding that it’s no coincidence the team’s record has improved in concert with its academics.
THE LAST WORD
This is a younger UT team, especially on offense, with tons of depth on defense. Their first-year starter at quarterback is also surrounded by major skill position talent, both proven and ascending, as well as new “big humans,” as Sarkisian likes to call them, to step up along the O-line.
Sarkisian talks often about being prepared to play the 16-plus games required in this College Football Playoff era. Winning the SEC and making a deep run to the title game requires more than just the first-team guys. “I think this is a championship roster,” he said. “Now we’ve got to play like a championship team.”
CREDIT: Texas Athletics
