Pressure Is Building at Texas, But Not on Arch Manning

In August, the idea that preseason No. 1 Texas—not Oklahoma—would enter the Allstate Red River Rivalry game with a coach under pressure and a quarterback underperforming would’ve sounded impossible.

After all, Brent Venables faced a make-or-break 2025 season on the hot seat. It was the Sooners who had a host of challenges up front and ended last season with virtually no scholarship pass catchers they could rely on.

Yet, after a summer of hype, Steve Sarkisian’s Longhorns head into Saturday’s game at the Cotton Bowl looking for Red River redemption to keep their slim College Football Playoff aspirations alive after suffering two losses.

“I love all aspects of this game,” Sarkisian said. “I don’t love that there’s some noise around how we’re playing, but that’s the reality of the situation. That’s what we signed up to do. We’ve got to focus on us.”

As with any team that fails to meet expectations, blame starts when things go so wrong, so quickly. There’s real criticism of the false advertising and of the program that didn’t push back on the narrative. Many are pointing the finger directly at quarterback Arch Manning, who has gone from the poster boy of the 2025 season to 39th in FBS passer rating. 

As Manning says, he has to play better. He has to be better on every dropback, stop sailing passes he routinely completes and tighten up his footwork to stop bouncing so many throws short of their target. 

Texas coming up short of expectations as a team, however, falls directly on Sarkisian. There was always going to be a difficult path for Manning to come anywhere close to living up to the resonance his last name carries, but the issues on the 40 Acres have been exacerbated by what the coaching staff assembled around him.

After three offensive linemen were drafted in the spring, everyone knew that would be an issue for the Horns. It was careless, in retrospect, they failed to supplement through the portal for both starters and depth this offseason.

One top transfer offensive lineman, Isaiah World, wound up at Oregon and has performed exceptionally well for the title-contending Ducks. World played for Nevada coach Jeff Choate, who used to be on the Texas staff under Sarkisian, and could have given his old boss a heads up if he was going to lose a talented tackle to a bigger school no matter what.

Maybe worse for Texas is the strategy it should have employed was instead put to use across the state in Lubbock. Texas Tech went hard to sign every offensive (and defensive) lineman it could, such as North Carolina’s Howard Sampson and Miami (Ohio) guard Will Jados, and stopped at nothing to be in every conversation for a top player. Mega-booster Cody Campbell has generated plenty of headlines for helping to fund the Red Raiders’ impressive NIL operation, but the Longhorns can’t claim they couldn’t compete in that area.

There’s also the matter of weapons around Manning, which have been lacking even when healthy. If there was one place Texas should’ve had its pick of transfer talent, it was at receiver, pairing with a Manning in a big-play offense fresh off producing a first-round draft pick.

Mario Craver is third in the country in receiving yards and had a 46-yard reception against Texas last season while with Mississippi State, yet wound up at Texas A&M. Two of this season’s receiving touchdown leaders, Miami’s CJ Daniels and A&M’s KC Concepcion, were certainly out there in the portal to have a conversation with. If you wanted a complement to Ryan Wingo, how is it you land on Stanford’s Emmett Mosley V late in the process instead of Zachariah Branch (now at Georgia), Nic Anderson (LSU) or Eric Singleton Jr. (Auburn)?

“You can play the hypothetical and the what ifs, but it’s what’s available. The guys we have are more than capable,” Sarkisian said Monday. “We’ve got to coach better, we’ve got to play better.”

So far, the Longhorns have not done either. They’re 63rd in the country—tied with FBS newbie Delaware and Jacksonville State—in scoring and have just a single rushing touchdown against Power 4 competition. Manning’s numbers are stark with an 8:2 touchdown-to-interception ratio in the three games against Group of 5 teams and a 3:3 mark against Florida and Ohio State.

The good news for all involved is that Red River represents a chance to wash away almost all of that and reset the narrative that has enveloped the season as it nears the halfway mark. 

Texas could add a marquee win and fire up its fan base. Their ability to do just about anything offensively would be a meaningful sign of progress against a Sooners defense that is allowing just a tad more than a touchdown per game. 

Sarkisian and his embattled signal-caller would celebrate wearing the Golden Hat either way. If they don’t, the pressure on the head coach, not Manning, should ramp up further after several offseason missteps have derailed a once-promising campaign that was supposed to be a culmination of program building instead of a repudiation of it.

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