Arch Manning Must Deliver For Texas To Reach It’s Potential

If you have watched Texas play over the last two weeks two things are obvious, the Longhorns have an extremely talented roster loaded from top to bottom and they will only go as far as Arch Manning takes them.

Despite having a productive defense full of future NFL draft picks, Texas’ future success and failures rest on the right arm of Manning who hasn’t exactly looked the part of a future number one draft pick some think he will be after the season. Instead, Manning has been extremely inconsistent and erratic at times as he has missed open receivers and wildly overthrown others the last two weeks in wins over Ohio State and UTSA.

Despite having his first clean game without an interception on the season last week, even Manning had to admit things must get better if Texas plans on winning their SEC opener against Tennessee at Neyland Stadium this week.

“I didn’t play well,” Manning said after the UTSA game. “The offense has to play better if we’re going to beat Tennessee.”

Although he’s not playing his best heading into SEC action, history and Manning’s overall track record points to him turning things around going forward as the schedule gets tougher. Just last season, Manning was in a similar situation after producing a passer rating of 151.1 with 1,151 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and 5 interceptions and going 3-2 to kick off his first full year as a starter.

Manning rebounded by putting up a passer rating of 141.8 with 1,846 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and 2 interceptions in his last 7 regular season games to post a nice 6-1 record while beating top ten teams Oklahoma, Vanderbilt and state rival Texas A&M on the way. The special dual threat ability Manning has in his bag was a key factor in all three of those games and will be leaned upon heavily this weekend.

Despite all the perceived ups and downs in Mannings’ young career, the quarterback prodigy is 16-3 as a starter heading into his 20^th start in Knoxville this weekend. While some people in Austin and around the country are doubting if Arch is the man who can get Texas’ back to the promise land, don’t count Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian among them.

Even with the Longhorns offense in full struggle mode, Sark is very confident Manning can get back to playing at the extremely high standard bestowed upon him by fans and media alike.

Steve Sarkisian believes Arch Manning is more than enough for Texas to beat Tennessee

“I do think that’s something important for him is to not to try to be something that doesn’t best suit him,” Sarkisian said at his weekly press conference this week. “I want him to be him. I want him to be Arch Manning, I don’t want him to be Archie, I don’t want him to be Peyton, I don’t want him to be Eli, I don’t want him to be Colt McCoy, I don’t want him to be Vince Yong, I want him to be Arch Manning and Arch Manning is plenty good enough for us and to put us in position to win.”

Put the Holly Rowe saga and the family lineage aside and look at the facts. Arch Manning is coming off a rough performance against an overmatched opponent and will have to be more consistent and deliver more explosive plays if he wants to silence his critics and haters and beat the Volunteers this weekend.

The junior quarterback came to Texas for moments and games like Saturday afternoon, if he’s that guy as the youngsters say, he will deliver a breath-taking performance, and Longhorns will kick off their SEC slate on the right foot. As a loss would be devastating for the whole program and the Manning’s aura will take a major hit.”