Arch Manning ready to lead Texas after learning how to "walk the walk"

Arch Manning has long been a respected figure in the Texas locker room. Of course, part of that respect comes from quality on field play both in games and during practices in 2023 and 2024. Part of it also comes from how he acts as a person.

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Manning had to bide his time for two years before taking the reins as the starter. When he took on that role, he also took on the role of team leader. That’s yet another adjustment Manning is making ahead of his first season as Texas’ full-time QB1.

“Now you kind of get to lead the whole group,” Manning said at SEC Media Days. “I spend time with the defense, the O-line. Last year, I was taking notes from Quinn (Ewers), seeing how he did it and trying to find my role. Now I can take full gauge and try to spend as much time as I can in the offseason with everyone.”

Quarterbacks are often looked to for leadership in football. That holds true in a program where the head coach has called quarterback the most important position in sports. Focus is rightfully going to shift on the QB, whether that’s the first-stringer, the back up, or the third man on the depth chart.

Manning’s teammates respect him now, but he understands it took hard work to get to that point. That hard work has him in position to be admired by those in his locker room.

“I think you’ve got to walk the walk first,” Manning said. “I think as much as it wasn’t always fun sitting those two years, I think I got a lot of respect from my teammates. Now coming out of it, it’s from a place of love. Not just being a turd.”

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian believes Manning has walked the walk.

“He’s always been, if not the hardest worker, one of the hardest workers on the team,” Sarkisian said. “He’s always been a great teammate. He’s always been a guy that’s connected to his teammates in that locker room. Now more than ever going into year three, the bulk of our team is our first, second, and third year players and all those guys have been his guys.”

Manning isn’t shy. Everyone knows who his father, uncles, and grandfather are. By no means was Manning destitute growing up. He also has a little bit of spending money now via endorsement deals with Red Bull, Vuori, and other companies.

But Manning isn’t living in a penthouse on 2nd Street in downtown Austin. He’s living with teammates Colton Vasek, Rett Anderson, Will Randle, Parker Livingstone, and Bryce Chambers and just trying to be one of the guys.

“I really am,” Manning said. “I live with five other guys on the team. We have a good time. It’s nice being on the same schedule as them. A lot of our memories are going to be a hard run, being in the locker room, or hanging at home. Not a bunch of games.”

He also knows that he’s a celebrity, but at certain points he wondered why he was so popular. In 2023, before even seeing the field, students at Texas were coming up to take pictures with him. Of course, his lost student ID became a viral story.

It was part of a big adjustment for Manning.

“It was kind of frustrating because I hadn’t done anything and I was taking pictures with people going to class,” Manning said. “I would always call my mom and pretend I was on the phone going to class. That was the first time I was like ‘wow, this is different from a 2A high school where no one cares about me.'”

Even though he believes he hadn’t done anything yet, sitting on the bench not just for his first year but also his second was a source of frustration. He said on Tuesday that he would often spend time in former Texas special assistant to the head coach Paul Chryst‘s office, going over film. Manning noted that those sessions were more for Manning to vent than to watch film.

Those venting sessions with Chryst, sitting behind Maalik Murphy in year one, sitting behind Ewers again in year two, helped turn Manning into the player he currently is.

“It was pretty tough,” Manning said. “Obviously, the competitor in me always wants to play, be on the field, and help my team out. Looking back, it definitely helped me grow as a person and a player. I’m blessed for that.”

Now, that competitor is the starter. He’s going to be the person Texas looks to for leadership. He’s going to be the face of the program. And the man who helped put Manning in that position thinks the third-year signal-caller is ready for everything the spot entails.

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“He’s such an easy going, mellow mannered guy that he doesn’t have to try to hard,” Sarkisian said. “I think him being himself at his core is what’s going to be good enough for people to get a sense and feel for who he is, and ultimately his teammates.”