Steve Sarkisian weighs balance in promoting, protecting Arch Manning at Texas

From the moment Arch Manning stepped onto Texas‘ campus, he was one of the biggest stars in college football. On Tuesday, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian discussed the difficulty of shielding Manning from the endless outside attention he receives.

“I don’t know if you can insulate,” Sarkisian said, per OutKick‘s Trey Wallace. “For Arch, part of coming to Texas was building that brand and having exposure..I want to make sure he enjoys his experience… Part of that is protecting him as well.”

Manning will have more eyes on him than ever before this season as he enters his debut campaign as the Longhorns’ QB1. After all, college football fans have high expectations for the redshirt sophomore. It’s difficult to blame them.

Manning started twice last season while Quinn Ewers recovered from an abdominal injury. In his two starts, Manning completed 41-60 pass attempts for 583 yards and four touchdowns while only throwing two interceptions. He also recorded 29 rushing yards and a touchdown.

While Manning didn’t start in Texas’ Week 2 win over UTSA, he subbed in early after Ewers suffered an abdominal strain. The 6-foot-4 phenom finished the game 223 passing yards, 53 rushing yards and five total touchdowns.

Away from the field, Manning hasn’t exactly gone out of his way to avoid attention, either. Manning boasts NIL deals with popular brands such as Panini America, Uber and Red Bull.

In total, Manning has a $6.6 million On3 NIL valuation, the highest of any college athlete. For reference, Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg is second on the list with a $4.4 million valuation. In short, no other college athlete’s NIL valuation comes within $2 million of Manning.

Despite Arch Manning’s seemingly endless success, Sarkisian is doing his best this offseason to temper expectations. He doesn’t want Manning to be under so much to pressure to succeed that he can’t enjoy the experience.

“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. It’s finally his time and I hope he can just have the opportunity to enjoy it and enjoy it the right way.”