Stephen A. Smith blasts Steve Sarkisian for coaching scared because of Arch Manning

Texas opened the 2025 college football season as the consensus preseason No. 1 team for the first time in the program’s long history. Six weeks later, the Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns have completely fallen out of the Top 25 rankings for the first time since 2022 following Saturday’s disappointing road loss at unranked Florida.

Now, as newly-unranked Texas (3-2, 0-1 SEC) readies to take on undefeated No. 6 Oklahoma (5-0, 1-0 SEC) in the Red River Showdown in Dallas on Saturday, the ESPN talking heads are dishing out blame for the Longhorns’ early-season collapse.

ESPN firebrand Stephen A. Smith specifically called out Sarkisian for coaching “scared,” and effectively suggested the fifth-year ‘Horns head man has crumbled under the pressure of having to coach a player of Arch Manning‘s pedigree. This criticism comes after Sarkisian downplayed Texas’ 0-2 start on the road by questioning how other FBS teams would fare against the same schedule: “See how they do.”

“I’m very disappointed at what I’ve seen from Steve Sarkisian this year. To me, he has coached scared. He’s coached like somebody that’s been forced to deal with all the allure, all the attention and notoriety that comes associated with Arch Manning. And he has not lived up to the billing any more than his quarterback has,” Smith said during Tuesday’s First Take on ESPN. “I think he’s been feeling the pressure since the opening of the season. I think he has coached like it. And I think for him to say what he’s said as a quote. What do you mean (by) how would they do? You’re Texas. You came in ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation. And this ain’t a Florida (team) that’s coached by Urban Meyer. … Tim Tebow ain’t walking through that door.

“This is a different Florida program, and for him to come out and say that, to me, just speaks to the level of disappointment everybody should be feeling about Steve Sarkisian. Because I feel like he has coached scared because Arch Manning is there, there was huge expectations, and he’s been dealing with all that instead of just coaching football like he knows how to coach football.”

Stephen A. Smith then doubled-down by suggesting Texas’ early-season struggles on the road further widen the divide between Sarkisian and college football’s elite head coaches.

“I think it’s exposing the difference between him and the likes of a Nick Saban, a Kirby Smart, and others,” Smith concluded. “There’s levels to (coaching) and he’s showing he’s not on that level because of how he’s handled all this attention.”

Sarkisian has a 41-19 record in his first 60 games as the Longhorns’ head football coach, including 16-5 overall and 7-2 through his first two seasons in the SEC following a 13-3 campaign in 2024.