Texas Longhorns Fans Will Love What Steve Sarkisian Just Said About Arch Manning

Arch Manning seems to be doing exactly what he needs to do to be elite for the Texas Longhorns in 2026.

Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning runs the ball with head coach Steve Sarkisian during warm-ups prior to the game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

HOUSTON - While he didn't get off to the best start, Arch Manning ended up having a tremendous year for the Texas Longhorns in 2025.

In his first year as a starter, Manning completed 248 of his 404 passes (61.4 percent) for 3,163 yards (10th in school history) and 26 touchdowns (6th in school history) with just seven interceptions. He also ran for 399 yards and 10 scores, ranking him second behind only Diego Pavia in the SEC for total touchdowns by a QB with 36.

Still, there was plenty of meat left on the bone for Manning in 2025. Outside of the improvements needed around him at offensive line, wide receiver, and running back, Manning also needs to make the same changes of his own.

Most notably, he needed to clean up his mechanics and fundamentals, including his tendency to over-stride and lock out his left knee, as well as his arm angles, which resulted in inaccuracies with the football.

However, according to Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian during his appearance at the Houston Touchdown club on Thursday, Manning appears to have cleaned up those issues and looks better than ever from a fundamental standpoint.

Sark praises Arch Manning for offseason improvements

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian reacts with Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

"The biggest thing that I've seen from Arch, fundamentally, he's so much cleaner right now," Sarkisian said. "He's really worked hard at this. That's going to really help from an accuracy standpoint."

Of course, it could be argued that Manning's issues last season were at least somewhat attributed to having to play through the season with an injury in his right foot - or his plant foot when passing the football.

Manning suffered the injury against Texas A&M in 2024 and tried to avoid having surgery to repair it heading into the offseason.

That plan did not pan out as expected, leading Manning to have the procedure to fix the issue this spring. Fortunately, the procedure was successful, and he is back at 100 percent health.

But equally is important, is what Manning learned about himself in 2025.

Manning was baptized by fire in 2025

Florida Gators defensive end Tyreak Sapp and linebacker Myles Graham sack Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

From the opening snap of the 2025 season, Manning was under fire due to extremely subpar interior offensive line play.

That resulted in him getting, for lack of a better term, beaten to a pulp by almost every defense he faced - particularly in SEC play. For the entire year, Manning was pressured 165 times, the most in the SEC. In all, he was pressured on over 35 percent of his drop-backs and was sacked 26 times.

However, that also helped him grow. Despite those high-pressure rates, Manning was one of the best in the SEC at sack avoidance, using his pocket presence and scrambling ability to manage a 13.3-percent pressure-to-sack, per PFF.

That's not even including the frustrations he faced with his receivers, who dropped an astounding 8.1 percent of his passes, or with his running game, which was the worst in school history since World War II.

But according to Sarkisian, Manning was able to take all of those negatives, and learn a great deal from the adversity.

"I think he learned about himself, he had some real adversity last year, and this guy found out about himself," Sarkisian said. "I think he found out about how physically tough he is, and I think his teammates did too, and they credit him for that."

Now, Manning heads into 2026 with the same level of expecations - if not higher - as he did in 2025.

Only this time, he will have all of the weapons in the world, an improved running game, an improved offensive line, and even an improved defense.

And, at least according to his head coach, he will also be a much imrpoved as a player.

Which, quite honestly, should scare the daylights out of opposing fanbases next season.

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