Arch Manning was supposed to be a first-round lock. Instead, seven games into the season, questions about his NFL future are growing louder. His performance against Ole Miss showed what he can do, yet the inconsistency remains. For ESPN’s Paul Finebaum, though, the bigger issue sits on the sidelines. He believes Steve Sarkisian has done Manning a disservice.

During a recent episode of The Paul Finebaum Show on ESPN, one longtime listener argued that a team should be built around its quarterback, pointing to how David Cutcliffe developed Peyton and Eli Manning.

“I totally agree,” Finebaum responded. “I think David Cutcliffe is one of the great coaches we’ve ever seen for that specific role; I agree with him, too.”

He then made it clear where he believed the blame lay, doubling down on his criticism of Sarkisian: “I think Arch, I think Arch has been done a disservice by Steve Sarkisian.”

There’s no doubt the Longhorns have the talent to win games, but their play-calling has been a major problem. Costly turnovers have also contributed to back-to-back losses against the Florida Gators and Oklahoma Sooners. Arch’s interceptions, fumbles, and sacks have played a part, but Sarkisian’s questionable play-calling deserves the larger share of the blame.

That said, Finebaum agreed with the caller that Sarkisian needs to take a page out of David Cutcliffe’s playbook with Peyton and Eli Manning. And how? By being stricter, micromanaging every detail, and leaving no room for complacency.

Cutcliffe was far more demanding in his approach to coaching Peyton and Eli Manning. Peyton once described his training sessions with Cutcliffe as intense and grueling, recalling how his coach constantly pushed him to work faster and refused to let him settle for anything less than his best.

Even when the sessions became exhausting, Cutcliffe continued to demand precision, discipline and consistency rather than ease the pressure.

“He and I both really got to go back in time,” Peyton told the Los Angeles Times back in 2012. “I was a junior in college again. He was my coach. He coached the hell out of me. He yelled at me. “Faster! Faster! Faster!” I can remember that same feeling I had in college. I’d get mad at him.

Their training sessions sometimes grew heated, but Cutcliffe never allowed Peyton to lower his standards. Beyond relentless physical drills, the program targeted his strength, flexibility, conditioning, and nutrition, with no certainty he would return to his previous form.

“Nobody knew, including me, how this would play out,” he added. “I couldn’t find anybody else who had the same injury. There was no model.

With Eli, Cutcliffe took a different approach. He redshirted the young quarterback in 1999 because he believed Eli was not ready to start. But Cutcliffe also challenged him to “Want to be a starter at Ole Miss? Do you want be all-conference? Do you want to be All-American? Or do you want to be the best who’s ever played here?”

Eli returned three days later with his answer: “I want to be the best that ever played here.”

This simple answer gave Cutcliffe a clear roadmap, and the rest is history. His coaching philosophy was simple: be strict with quarterbacks and nurture their talent so they can execute any play in any team setup.

However, he also believed in building the team around the quarterback. It worked for both Peyton and Eli Manning, and Finebaum believes Sarkisian should take a page from Cutcliffe’s playbook and apply the same approach to Arch Manning.