Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said this week that he, his staff and the media share responsibility for a shift in quarterback Arch Manning’s public demeanor, acknowledging that the pressure surrounding the Longhorns’ season has changed how Manning is presenting himself ahead of Saturday night’s game against Ole Miss in Austin.
“I would use the word edgy, and I like it. He’s edgy right now,” Sarkisian said. “And I think that somebody texted me today that we lost the ‘Aw Shucks’ kid and we created something else. I don’t know if we lost him. We created this. We did. All of us. Y’all included. Me. The whole thing, right. Everybody on ESPN, we’ve created this. And so we’ll see what comes out of it.”
He continued: “But he’s edgy right now. And honestly, I appreciate that about him. At some point, he’s gotta fight back. And the best way for him to fight back is going out and playing really good football with his teammates and enjoy playing football with his teammates. And so I’m looking forward to watching him compete Saturday night.”
The comments come during a tense stretch for the program. Texas has lost consecutive games to unranked opponents, and outside of a fourth-quarter comeback against Ohio State, the team has largely failed to meet the expectations Sarkisian set for himself and his players this season. Sarkisian has previously said the College Football Playoff semifinals are no longer an acceptable ceiling for this Texas program, and he has not ruled out benching Manning amid the team’s two-game skid.
Manning himself said after a loss to Florida that he intends to “let it rip” going forward, a contrast to the more reserved pocket presence he has shown for much of this season. He has displayed a more aggressive, confident style of play before — both last season and in the comeback effort against Ohio State — but that version of the quarterback has been largely absent over the past two months.
With Texas’ playoff hopes increasingly tied to Saturday’s result against Ole Miss, the question facing the Longhorns is whether the attention surrounding Manning’s persona, and Sarkisian’s apparent willingness to use that outside noise, will translate into more aggressive quarterback play on the field.
