David Pollack: Arch Manning taking blame that belongs to Steve Sarkisian

Texas and quarterback Arch Manning entered the 2025 college football season on top of the world.

The Longhorns were ranked No. 1 in the preseason and Manning was lauded as the Heisman Trophy favorite. Through just five games however, they now sit outside the Top 25 Rankings and Manning ranks 14th in the SEC in QBR. This disappointing start to the season came to a head on Saturday, as the then-No. 9 ranked Longhorns fell to Florida on the road 29-22.

In that loss to the Gators, Manning passed for 263 yards and two touchdowns. He however also threw two interceptions and was sacked six times. Through five games this season, he boasts just 1,151 passing yards (10th most in SEC) and 11 passing touchdowns (5th most in SEC). His five interceptions are tied for the second most in the conference, while his nine sacks rank fifth most.

On the latest edition of David Pollack‘s ‘See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack‘ podcast, Pollack isn’t putting all of the blame on Manning. He went after Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, claiming that he isn’t getting enough flak for his quarterback’s struggles.

David Pollack goes after Texas HC Steve Sarkisian

“What we’re gonna see from the national media, it is what it is, but it’ll be a pile fest on Arch,” Pollack said. “It’ll be a big dog-pile and everybody’s gonna crap over Arch because he hasn’t been playing great. And he hasn’t. He hasn’t played great, but let’s not let the most important part off the hook. The most important part is I think Sark, I think that’s a big deal. That’s a big person that deserves some of the blame. When we talk about Sark and his record, first of all, we’ve talked about everybody and NIL. NIL helped the state of Texas as much as anyone.

“That is a big time deal for them. They’ve got so much money and it makes it so easy to continue to be successful when you have that much money. At the same time, when you look at Texas and their roster and the ability they have to spend and they’ve had a couple of good seasons, you have to look back a little bit and say Sark is 2-8 against Top-10 teams at Texas. We’re gonna talk about Arch because he’s not playing well. But whose job is it to make sure he plays well? It’s the coach’s job. It’s the offensive play caller’s job… who is Steve Sarkisian.”

Texas, which is now just 3-2, has yet to win a game against Power-Four competition this season. Its two losses have come to No. 3 Ohio State and Florida, in which Manning passed for a combined 433 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. The whole regime just never seemed to recover from that season-opening loss and that has now turned into two losses in their first five games this season.