Arch Manning Opens Up About College Adjustment

Coming from a small school in New Orleans, life at the University of Texas was always going to be an adjustment for Arch manning

Matt Galatzan | May 23, 2023

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Texas Longhorns

Texas Longhorns freshman quarterback Arch Manning might have been as high profile as they come as a recruit, but coming from a small private school, life on the 40 Acres was always going to be a challenge.

How big of a challenge?

Well, Manning's former high school, Isidore Newman, is a 2-A school comprised of 917 students. Meanwhile, the University of Texas is the ninth-largest college student body in the country, capping out at 52,384 in the 2022-23 academic year - 98.3 percent bigger than Isidore Newman.

Despite that, however, Manning is finding the adjustment to be an enjoyable experience.

"It was definitely a little bit of an adjustment, coming from a 2-A private school to the University of Texas, but I've enjoyed it so far. It's been a great experience," Manning said. "Everyone has been super welcoming in Austin. Everyone is super nice."

"There's definitely some days where you think you belong and some days where you'll like, 'Wow, this is pretty tough.' So you kind of have to stick to the process and try to get better each day."

Helping Manning in his transition from a small school celebrity to college quarterback, has been his QB room. In particular, Quinn Ewers, who comes from a large school in Texas, and Maalik Murphy, who came from an even smaller school than Manning, have served as great mentors early in the freshman's time in Austin.

"I love our quarterback group," Manning said. "A bunch of nice guys. Quinn and Maalik (Murphy) have been super good to me, and even the other guys, Cole (Lourd), Charles (Wright), and Joe (Tatum). We just have a good group, and I'm glad I'm a part of it."

Manning is now set to enter his first summer in the Longhorns' offseason program where he hopes to take a big step forward leading into the fall.

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Published May 23, 2023

MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.