Steve Sarkisian says Arch Manning has taken zero NIL money at Texas
HOUSTON — With a last name like the one that sits on the back of his jersey, Texas quarterback Arch Manning is an understandable topic of genuine interest for Longhorn fans. The early-enrollee freshman took Campbell-Williams Field at the Longhorns’ Orange-White game to one of the loudest ovations of the day on April 15.
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It makes sense that Steve Sarkisian fielded a question about Manning at a luncheon the Touchdown Club of Houston hosted on Wednesday.
NIL was also a central topic in Houston, as Sarkisian took a number of questions about the one of the biggest hot-button issues in the sport from a crowd with several who were coached by Darrell Royal or Fred Akers, or followed and supported the program since that time.
Sarkisian repeated previous sentiments on NIL. It didn’t matter what he thought of the subject. It was his job to, in his words, “adapt or die.” In several of his answers, he praised the efforts of the Texas One Fund.
But after his typical response about NIL, someone from the crowd asked Sarkisian a question that’s as blunt as they come: how much did Arch cost y’all?
“Zero,” Sarkisian responded.
“Everybody is under this assumption that this was an NIL deal for him to come to the University of Texas,” Sarkisian continued. “It was absolutely not. I wish I had my phone. I would read you the text I got from Cooper Manning after Arch called me out of the blue at about nine o’clock in the morning to say he was coming to the University of Texas.
“It had come down to us, Alabama, and Georgia, and in the end his dad texted me and said if there’s a message to tell any of the young recruits you’re recruiting, it’s that Arch Manning is coming to Texas because he loves the University of Texas, he loves the coaches, and he loves the program. This is not about NIL. He’s taken zero money from NIL while he’s at Texas.”
In fact, that dollar figure won’t change for some time.
“Here’s a guy whose NIL value of whatever it is — his grandpa (Archie Manning) won’t let him take any NIL money,” Sarkisian said. “He said ‘you can take money when you become a player, when you start.’ I thought that was a pretty good message from Archie.”
Sark was asked questions about Manning’s on-field play, including one that’s common with quarterbacks of his ranking: Is Arch going to be patient enough to remain the third quarterback, or potentially the backup?
The answer at first was startling, then followed by strong reasoning.
“I hope not,” Sarkisian said. “I want him to be scratching at the surface at every chance he can get to be more than that. When we accept our role that way, that’s a problem, right?
“But I will say, his uncle, Peyton, the plan for him when he got to Tennessee was to redshirt, too. He was third on the depth chart, too But because of injuries late in his freshman year, he had to play.
“His uncle, Eli, redshirted his freshman year at Ole Miss and didn’t play his entire second year at Ole Miss until the bowl game, the second half of that bowl game.
“I think the family is very reasonable in understanding that this is a process of development. I think they also understand when it’s you’re time to play, that you want to play great. Everybody can hurry up and just get on the field, and then you don’t play so hot. Well, that’s not very fun. You want to put yourself in position to get ready to perform when your numbers is called to perform at a high level.”
