Steve Sarkisian on Arch Manning struggles: ‘It’s all mental’

Texas quarterback Arch Manning entered the 2025 season with lofty expectations, at least from the outside. Many had him in the Heisman Trophy conversation.

Through three games, those discussions have all but disappeared. And following a rather woeful outing against UTEP, the questions about how Manning can get on track are deafening.

The Longhorns likely won’t realize their playoff potential if Arch Manning doesn’t start playing better. Luckily, coach Steve Sarkisian believes the issues are correctable.

“Yeah, you know, I would probably say for the most part it’s all mental, quite frankly,” Sarkisian said. “Right? When you really think about the physical ability to make throws. And now it’s trust belief, confidence, all those things that play into it.”

There’s one area in particular that Arch Manning really needs to work on, per Sarkisian. That’s his ability to flush things.

That did not happen on Saturday in the game against UTEP, when Manning threw 10 straight incompletions at one point. Quite simply, he needs to get better at pushing the reset button.

“His ability to move on to the next play I think is something that we’ve got to continue to work on and not harbor the last plays and the last plays and the last plays,” Sarkisian said. “And have the ability to refocus, recalibrate and focus on the next play.”

The good news is Texas still managed to beat UTEP. But the Longhorns know they won’t survive SEC games playing like that. Arch Manning finished 11-of-25 passing for 114 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He did run for two scores.

The important thing, though, will be growing from the experience. It’s not fun right now, but it can be a step in the overall progression.

“Those are all things that, like I said, until you get put into these fires that you have to learn from some of these things, it’s a lot easier when you’re on the outside looking in, to say, ‘Just do this, just do that,'” Sarkisian said. “Now he’s in the fire. Now we’ve got to make these adjustments in real time.”

For his part, Sarkisian seems to relish the opportunity he has ahead with Arch Manning. And that could bode well for Texas.

“Like I said, that’s kind of the fun part of it all,” Sarkisian said. “That we have something really to work on. We know what it is. It’s tangible. And we can get it done. We’ve been down this road before and we’ve righted the ship before. So we’ll get there.”