Steve Sarkisian Impressed by Arch Manning's Composure vs. ULM

Arch Manning's love for the deep ball brought success, as well as setbacks, to Saturday's offense, but Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian isn't too worried about the decision making of his young QB.

Sep 21, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) throws a pass in the first half against the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images / Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has now lived through his first week of addressing an Arch Manning-crazed media, but that didn’t stop him from keeping it real about the performance of Texas’ anticipated No. 1 QB.

Sarkisian spoke on both the progression and the struggles, of the redshirt freshman quarterback’s first career start on Saturday, where Manning threw for 258 yards on 29 attempts with two touchdowns and two interceptions against the ULM Warhawks.

“I thought his poise and composure was really good Saturday, even after the pick at the end of the first half,” Sarkisian said. “To come back in the second half and play the way he did in the third quarter, I thought was impressive for me.”

Manning had his flashes of greatness at times on Saturday, but as Sarkisian alluded to, he didn’t start off all that well. In his first drive as a starting quarterback in college, Manning forced an ill-advised throw downfield, falling easily into the hands of ULM’s Carl Fauntroy. As Sarkisian noted, Manning was able to bounce back, scoring touchdowns on five of the team’s next six drives.

Manning was most active down the field, for better or for worse on Saturday. 

The redshirt freshman threw 12 passes deeper than 15 yards in the air, the same amount of passes he threw in both the short and intermediate games combined. Manning saw mixed both of the extremes on these plays, as his five completions resulted in 160 yards of passing offense, nearly quadruple the amount of yards ULM starting quarterback General Booty had in totality, but also throwing that early interception and missing six more passes on deep routes. 

Manning was able to connect a few times, including 56-yard and 46-yard deep passes to Isaiah Bond and Matthew Golden, as well as an overturned completion to Silas Bolden that would’ve gone for a large chunk of yardage. Still, Sarkisian wants to see his young gunslinger improve in the check-down game to be able to improve the offense's overall efficiency.

“There were probably four or five plays in there where when he really grasped checking that ball down, the value in that check down, and maybe not having to force a couple of those throws, the impact that could have had,” Sarkisian said. “That's the difference of completing, you know, 50, 52% of your passes to 65% of your passes, and then what that all looks like. So room for growth there.”

Manning finished the game with under a 52 percent completion percentage, but his 17.2 yards per completion would rank second among all SEC quarterbacks throughout the first four weeks. Still, the quarterback had a few misplays throughout the game that would have been problems in games like a Red River Rivalry matchup, or against No. 2 Georgia the next week. 

Alongside the bad first-half pick, Manning operated poorly in the first half two-minute drill, missing a near surefire 69-yard touchdown to running back Jaydon Blue on a pass downfield, followed by a bullet pass that slipped out of Blue’s hands and into the awaiting arms of ULM defensive back Wydett Williams Jr.

“Arch believes in his ability, and so he's going to try to take some of these shots, and we reap the benefits of it,” Sarkisian said. "I just rattle off four guys making plays down the field. As he continues to grow, he's going to learn the value of some of those explosive plays on the perimeter, on check downs.”

At the end of the day, Manning has generated plenty of explosiveness for this offense in his limited action, and even if he isn’t the starter come Saturday, the quarterback has already made his name known in Sarkisian’s offense.

And as sophomore wide receiver Johntay Cook said in Monday’s press conference:

“I think we all like the deep shots.”