Arch Manning isn’t exactly holding back anymore, and Texas seems to be soaking it in.
The Longhorns quarterback showed that edge in the Citrus Bowl win over Michigan, when he capped a nine-play, 75-yard go-ahead drive with a 30-yard touchdown strike to Kaliq Lockett. A few seconds later, the cameras caught Manning on the sideline saying, “I’m just gonna stop giving a f***.”
He backed it up soon after. When Texas got the ball again following an interception by Ty’Anthony Smith, Manning took off for a 60-yard touchdown that stretched the lead and put the game away.
Now, eight months later, that same attitude is still showing up in Austin. During Monday’s practice, Manning was jawing with edge rusher Colin Simmons after a screen play, another sign that the Texas quarterback has grown more comfortable leading with his voice as well as his arm.
“It’s funny because Arch probably talks a little more shit than people give him credit for outside of our building,” Steve Sarkisian said. “So in practice, there’s a good amount of banter that goes on and now Arch has more confidence, so he gives a little more of that banter. He gives a little more that banter back.”
That kind of edge isn’t brand new. Manning showed flashes of it last year too, including when he let out some frustration on an overmatched Sam Houston defender at the end of non-conference play.
But Sarkisian made clear that the practice back-and-forth with Simmons is about more than trash talk. To him, it’s another sign of a quarterback who is settling into the job and bringing the rest of the team with him.
“It was all out of fun. It’s not nothing negative, it’s out of fun, and you could see that they’re loving practice,” Sarkisian said. “They’re loving to practice, but I think that starts when your quarterback loves practice, when he’s having fun being out there, and you can feel those guys responding that way.”
Sarkisian said Manning’s growth as a leader has been obvious since last season, when the quarterback wanted to prove he had earned that role before fully stepping into it.
“I’ll tell you this time last year it was like prodding cattle trying to get him to be the leader of the team, but he would always tell me, ‘“I’ll be the leader when I earn it.‘ I said, ‘No, you’ve earned it.
You’re the starting quarterback.‘“ Sarkisian said last month.
“He wanted to earn it on the field with his play, and I think that in his mind he’s done that. And we’ve seen a total different version of Arch Manning from a leadership standpoint, from a guy that is standing tall, not just kind of standing in the shadows, but standing tall in the front, being demanding of those guys around him of what the expectation is, but at the same time relaxing, having fun with those guys, so that they they can enjoy the process because it is a grind.”
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