Jahdae Barron tells story of Arch Manning offering to take his laundry for him as a freshman

He’s still got another year to go before he can enter the NFL Draft and then head to the NFL Combine himself, but that hasn’t stopped Texas quarterback Arch Manning from entering the discussion in Indianapolis this week.

Former teammate Jahdae Barron opened up on the new Texas starting quarterback while meeting with the media at the annual scouting combine.

“He’s the most humblest kid I’ve ever been around,” Barron said via KVUE’s Anne-Parker Coleman, before going on to extol Manning’s virtues.

In fact, Barron had a story for the media that they’d likely never heard before either. It dates back to the 2023 season, Manning’s freshman campaign on the 40 Acres.

“I never even told this story,” Barron began. “I think second week he was there, you know, as a freshman, yeah, as a freshman he’s like two lockers down from me. He asked to take my loot to the laundry thing. I told him, like, ‘Arch, you’re good, you don’t have to do it.’ But he just wanted to do it.”

The talented freshman quarterback, who came in as one of the most high-profile recruits of the last decade, wanted to make sure his teammates knew he wasn’t above them.

That’s leadership.

Barron explained, before lauding Manning even more as a player and a person.

“He wanted to show me that he wasn’t better than anybody, that he was still a part of this team and he was a freshman,” Barron said. “I told him he didn’t have to do it and I told him, ‘appreciate that.’ But sky’s the limit for that kid.”

Though he’s gotten the occasional time to shine while Quinn Ewers dealt with injuries, Manning has yet to be fully unleashed. That’ll happen in 2025, when he’s the team’s starting quarterback.

Manning and Texas will be looking to break past the College Football Playoff semifinal barrier, where the road has ended the last two seasons for the Longhorns. For his part, Manning has been excellent in limited action.

He has thrown for 969 yards and nine touchdowns in two seasons of work, against just two interceptions. He’s also run for four scores. If he can scale that up with a full-time workload, watch out. Because Manning seems to have the great teammate thing down pat already.