Arch Manning Woes: Texas QB becoming 'ultimate you've got your work cut out for you-type' for Steve Sarkisian

Texas QB Arch Manning isn’t even meeting the lower expectations of those who may have doubted him coming into his first season as the full-on starter in Austin. Josh Pate now doesn’t even know what to think when it comes to the Longhorns’ quarterback.

Pate, on ‘Josh Pate’s College Football Show’ on Sunday, quickly commented on the 27-10 win for No. 7 Texas over UTEP on Saturday. He, simply put, said something obviously isn’t right with Manning, with him clearly still very much being a longer-term project right now for Steve Sarkisian.

“Obviously, anybody who watched this knows what I’m about to say is true – something is very off about Arch Manning,” stated Pate. “It could be physical. It could be mental. Don’t really care. Actually, I don’t even know what I hope it is. But something is wrong.”

“I don’t have much to say about this game. It just doesn’t look good, and it is the ultimate you’ve got your work cut out for you-type of project right now for Steve Sarkisian. And I trust Sark as much as I do anyone on this, but, man,” Pate said. “Like, we were the ones who were slow playing the Arch hype, and even I’m very, very underwhelmed with the performance and I never though the dude was the Heisman favorite, and I never used the word ‘generational’ or ‘elite’ in anything other than a joking manner – not in a disrespectful way.”

In the win over the Miners, Manning still didn’t produce much, while continuing to just look off in general. He was 11-25 (44%) for 114 yards, a season-low so far, with a touchdown and an interception, while also rushing for 51 yards and two more scores – with that performance even leading to boos down on The 40 Acres. Now, on the season through three games, Manning is 47-85 (55.3%) for 579 yards, averaging 193 per game and just 6.8 per attempt, with six touchdowns and three picks as a passer.

“Yeah, I got to play better. It’s not good enough. As y’all can see, I’ve got to play better for us. Maybe it slides against UTEP, but it’s not going to win us games in the SEC. I got to play better,” said Manning postgame. “It’s frustrating because I know I’m better than this. I got to play better.”

Manning has three more weeks to figure whatever it is out with one more non-conference game and a bye week coming before their league opener on October 4th in The Swamp. That work in progress will need to be something by then because, as of now, it has not been going well at all for Texas’ QB1.

“This is tough, even by my standards or estimations, to watch right now,” said Pate.