Arch Manning: Why Texas QB 'doesn't need to be a superhero' for Longhorns in 2025

The excitement has hit pandemonium levels for Arch Manning to start at Texas. It’s no wonder, either, after multiple years of build-up to this time and the lineage of his family name, that expectations are through the roof for Manning.

Despite that, Josh Pate doesn’t think Arch Manning needs to play at an elite level this season. After all, as he explained on Get Up, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian built a complete roster around him. Now, the Longhorns are ready to take off.

“This about this, this is his first time starting as a quarterback,” Josh Pate said. “You’ve known him over half a decade. Three years in high school. Now three years in college. Now we get to see him. My expectation is pretty good to really good.”

Manning came to Texas in the Class of 2023 as a five-star recruit. He was also the top-ranked recruit overall in that recruiting cycle. However, through two seasons, he’s seen relatively limited playing time at Texas. Last season, when he did get on the field, including replacing Quinn Ewers as an injury replacement, he completed 67.8 percent of his passes for 939 yards and nine touchdowns to two interceptions. He also rushed for 108 yards and another two touchdowns.

Now, Texas is turning the keys to the offense over to Manning, going into his third college season. However, this isn’t a team where he needs to become a superstar early. Instead, he can focus on fitting into the team.

“He doesn’t need to be a superhero,” Pate said. “This is not Xbox. It’s the real world. Steve Sarkisian, I was there in the spring, he said, ‘We built towards this year.’ Meaning they stacked their entire roster and built their entire roster of their guys to work around Arch Manning, to where it doesn’t need to be the Arch show. It needs to be the Texas show, just sort of featuring Arch Manning. That’s what I expect.”

Arch Manning is going to be tested right away. Texas opens on the road against defending national champion Ohio State. There, he’s set to face one of the best teams in the country, which features an elite defense and secondary.

Steve Sarkisian reveals how Texas will use Arch Manning differently than Quinn Ewers

Arch Manning is replacing Quinn Ewers, but he’s not the same quarterback. That’s going to lead to Steve Sarkisian finding unique ways to use him, even if the team as a whole doesn’t go through massive changes.

“We may not change so much,” Sarkisian said. “But his ability to use his legs on third down in the red area to create plays when people are in man coverage and people are blitzing and there’s voids to go run, I think would be another component to that as well.”