Steve Sarkisian urges fans to be patiently supportive of Arch Manning as he lives out a lifelong dream

Before summer’s talkin’ season arrives, the college football calendar becomes fixated on ranking season. Who are the top coaches? The top 2026 draft prospects? The top quarterbacks?

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A number of player rankings have trickled out in the last few days, and there are ones that feature Arch Manning in the top 10 and some that don’t rank him at all. There have also been some 2026 mock drafts that have Manning going in the first round after one season as a starter.

One season leading the Longhorn offense might not be as many as Texas fans desire after watching Manning sit behind and back up Quinn Ewers over the last two years. Especially when there’s been a prevailing notion that Manning will spend two years as the starter before heading off to the NFL.

So when Texas fans got a chance to ask Steve Sarkisian about whether Manning would be his starter for 2025 and 2026 at Monday’s Touchdown Club of Houston University of Texas luncheon, Sarkisian said he hopes any decision related to the 2026 season comes with a considerable amount of difficulty.

“Here’s what I hope,” Sarkisian said, drawing a considerable amount of laughter to a pointed question. “I hope he’s got a really hard decision to make on about January 21st. That means we played a long time. That means he probably had a really good season. And that means he’s probably trying to figure out do I want one more year in the burnt orange or is it time to go to the NFL. I hope it’s a really, really hard decision. I hope it’s not a no-brainer for him to come back to school.”

For all the talks about Manning maybe being a one-year starter thanks to his traits, pedigree, and more, it overlooks the fact that he’s only played in 260 snaps during his time at Texas. To compare, Ewers played in 901 snaps last season and 2345 snaps at Texas in his college career. Even if Manning hits 1300 snaps on the run to a national championship game appearance hinted at by Sarkisian in his hypothetical, his resume still is shorter compared to others. Jaxson Dart, who just went in the first round of the draft, had 3125 career snaps in college. First overall pick Cam Ward notched 2568 at the FBS level with another 1500 at FCS Incarnate Word. Across a six-year career, Dillon Gabriel was on the field for 4553 snaps including 2648 at the Power Conference level.

Manning has a hype surrounding him and other God-given traits no member of that trio possesses, and therefore a level of NFL draft conversation rarely seen for a player with under 300 career snaps. That said, there’s a level of patience that Sarkisian requested for Manning from fans and commentators alike ahead of the 2025 campaign. That patience wasn’t just about Manning’s play, but also because 2025 finally presents a chance to Manning to live out a childhood dream.

“Arch is a great player, but I hope for everybody here that we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves,” Sarkisian said. “Let’s let this guy go play this year. Let’s let him have fun in finally getting his opportunity as the starting quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. It’s been a lifelong dream for this guy to do this.

“I know some of you have seen the videos of him as a kid wearing the Longhorn jersey and talking about playing for Texas; its finally his time and I hope he can just have the opportunity to enjoy it and enjoy it the right way.”

Manning himself has mentioned in his time at Texas that being a backup quarterback was not something he’s ever had to do in his football career. And it’s likely something not many thought he would elect to do for two years.

It follows that Sarkisian would want Manning to be able to enjoy this season and succeed this season without the pressure-packed backdrop of playing well enough to earn a spot in the 2026 NFL draft, let alone everything else associated with being the starting quarterback of the Longhorns.

So it follows that Sarkisian would ask fans to offer something similar to the patience Manning showed in Austin, even if it’s something he knows is a tough request.

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“Like a lot of guys on our team, he’s been dreaming about this his whole life,” Sarkisian said. “Now he gets an opportunity to go do it. I just want to make sure we all support him in this journey that he’s on.”