Steve Sarkisian Praises Key Quality Of Texas QB Arch Manning

The fifth-year Longhorns coach had quite a praise for his young quarterback.

Texas Longhorns Head Coach Steve Sarkisian speaks during the Coaches' Press Conference at AT&T Stadium, Jan. 9, 2024. Both coaches answered questions from the media during the conference, and will face each other in the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semi-final game on Friday. | Sara Diggins/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

With Quinn Ewers heading off to the NFL, the eyes of Texas are now upon redshirted sophomore Arch Manning.

The nephew of NFL legends Peyton and Eli Manning burst onto the scene last season for the Longhorns, taking over starting duties for head coach Steve Sarkisian after an abdominal injury to Ewers sidelined him for a few games.

In the 10 games (two starts) that saw the young Manning take the field, he completed 61 of 90 pass attempts for 939 yards with nine touchdowns and only two interceptions and also ran for four more touchdowns.

With the starting position solely in Manning's possession, the role comes with a lot more responsibility, but head coach Steve Sarkisian isn't worried about his young star taking on the workload.

On the Clean Pocket podcast with Jay Gruden and Colt McCoy, Sarkisian would tell the former NFL coach and the former Texas quarterback that leadership was one of Arch's best qualities.

"Just his leadership. This guy's got charisma, you can feel it. That's not a knock against Quinn, everybody leads differently, but he's got something about him that guys gravitate to. That's just always a great thing to have as a quarterback," Sarkisian said on the show. "You want the players to play for you, not in spite of you. You want those guys to want to play even better because of who you are, not because 'I need to do it for me.' They show that they want to do it, and Arch has that about him. He's talented and nobody works harder, nobody is in the film room more than he is."

Confidence is always a good thing for a head coach to have in a starting quarterback especially in this case and given that many fans had been advocating for Arch to keep the starting job even after Ewers healed following his injury, it's safe to say that the Longhorn faithful at DKR have full confidence in the 20-year-old as well.