Arch Manning may not be the Texas Longhorns’ starting quarterback, but head coach Steve Sarkisian will be depending on him anyway.
In an interview with ESPN, Sarkisian said Manning will play a key role for Texas in his sophomore year in 2024 despite playing his second straight season behind Quinn Ewers on the depth chart.
“We’re probably going to need both those guys at some point this season,” Sarkisian said, according to the network.
Sarkisian also shut down rumors that the pair of signal-callers don’t have a good relationship.
“We’ve got a great quarterback room … These guys are great, great friends. Nobody gets along better,” Sarkisian told ESPN. “There’s a real level of appreciation for what each guy is doing. Because they know the journey, they know the path, they know how we coach him. From Archer’s perspective, he’s watching Quinn have to go through some of the adversity, having a fight through injury, having to deal with the criticism of being the quarterback of Texas, so to see him have success, I think Arch is fired up for Quinn.
“On the flip side, I think Quinn recognizes Arch’s journey Year 1 in our system and what that’s like. If you go back to the spring game, Arch’s true freshman year, what that looked like, and then to see how he played Year 2 in the system, there’s great appreciation from Quinn for what Arch is doing.”
Manning opted to return to Austin earlier this summer despite being the No. 2 QB behind Ewers, citing his “dream to play at Texas.”
“It’s tough because you want to be out there playing with your boys,” Manning said at the Manning Passing Academy earlier this month. “But [it came down to] just realizing there’s nowhere else I want to be, and it was my dream to play at Texas. I’m going to stick it out and play there eventually.”
Save for an injury to Ewers, Manning likely will have to wait until at least the 2025 campaign to be the top Longhorn quarterback.