Steve Sarkisian Called Out Arch Manning. He Responded.

It may not have been rock bottom, but it was pretty close to the nadir of Arch Manning’s collegiate career just three weeks ago. The week prior, Manning sank the Longhorns with two fourth-quarter interceptions in the Red River Rivalry game against Oklahoma and was coming off of quarterbacking the Texas offense to a second-half collapse vs. Florida.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way for Manning. His struggles as a first-year starter could be shrugged away as growing pains, but this? His struggles as a second-year starter and fourth-year college quarterback could no longer be downplayed. Not by coach Steve Sarkisian, whose seat temperature has been rapidly increasing, nor by Manning, whose play was beginning to point to the marriage with the Longhorns being a poor decision.

The first telling sign of change came from Sarkisian. After the Oklahoma game, the Longhorns coach, perhaps attempting to deflect the conversation from his QB’s subpar play, said Manning wouldn’t face nearly as much criticism if his name were “Joe Smith.” The irony is that Sarkisian had been unwilling to go to lengths—publicly criticizing Manning’s play—that he would have with someone named Joe Smith. Until the Florida game.

Sarkisian turned up the heat on his QB, saying, “I need to see a better version of Arch Manning.”

And Manning has responded much in the same way his uncles or grandfather would have back in their haydays. Since that point, Manning has looked like a different quarterback, both on the stat sheet and via the eye test. He’s completed 70.4 percent of his passes for 729 yards, seven touchdown passes and two interceptions, both of which came in the victory two weeks ago over Ole Miss.

It was Manning’s least productive game of the last three, yet arguably the contest in which we learned the most about him. A Rebels interception on the second drive of the game threatened to continue the Manning discourse of previous weeks. Just as he had responded to Sarkisian’s criticisms with an “edgy” week of practice, Manning responded to the early adversity by leading back-to-back touchdown drives, accounting for the scores in each.

After the game, Manning opened the window a crack into what really makes him tick.

“I like proving people wrong,” said Manning one day after leading the Longhorns past the Rebels, embracing the storm that had been swirling around him after the Florida game.

There was no better example of that than in Manning’s latest performance, a 297-yard, three-touchdown, zero-turnover performance on the road against Missouri without his starting running back Hollywood Smothers and No. 1 wideout Cam Coleman.

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Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian talks with quarterback Arch Manning. — Arch Manning has responded well to the pressure applied from coach Steve Sarkisian after some rough performances for Texas. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Manning, navigating pressure from the Missouri defense and a lackluster Texas running game, made big-time throws when they were needed, none bigger than the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter. With the game tied at 20 and 5:03 remaining, Manning, on a second-and-13 with the pocket quickly collapsing, stood tall and led running back Raleek Brown into the end zone with a beautifully lofted ball.

It’s the type of throw that makes one remember why there was much hype and anticipation surrounding Manning when he arrived in Austin. Sure, there were plenty of throws that made one scratch their head, such as a missed third down throw to Emmett Mosley V in the fourth quarter.

But Manning, as we saw in the win over Ohio State, rose to meet the moment and the Texas defense sealed the deal with a big fourth quarter takeaways to complete the Longhorns’ third straight win, adding to the program’s impressive College Football Playoff resume.

“Nobody thought we would win,” Sarkisian said after the game.

That may be, but even fewer saw such a turnaround of this magnitude happening for Manning. Perhaps that’s exactly why it has.

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