Most quarterbacks would have buckled under the pressure Arch Manning faced last season. He didn’t, and his coach noticed. After Texas’s playoff miss, injury concerns, and inconsistent gameplay, the 21-year-old faced the wrath of the entire Texas fanbase and tough analyst verdicts, but despite all of it, he never gave up. That’s what grabbed head coach Steve Sarkisian’s attention as he praised his star QB.

“Ninety-nine percent of kids would have melted last year if they had to endure what he endured, and all Arch did was get stronger,” Texas HC Steve Sarkisian said during an interview with On3 reporter Chris Low. “The players in that locker room love him. I mean, he’s a guy’s guy. That was always the thing that I was on him about, and I love this about Arch, but I would say, ‘You need to go lead. You’re the leader.”

Sarkisian’s admission is valid when you realize that Arch Manning wasn’t just battling outside noise. He was quietly playing through a nagging foot injury all year before finally undergoing a cleanup procedure in January.

Arch Manning entered the 2025 season with a lot of hype as the No. 1 QB and Heisman favorite tags. But that soon ended after his season opener performance against Ohio State. He completed 17 of 30 passes for 170 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Then came one of his worst performances against UTEP, where he recorded 10 straight incompletions.

After the UTEP game, he was booed by his own fans. On top of that, the struggles were clearly visible as he looked uncomfortable; he rushed his throws and also missed open receivers. The game against Ohio State was very tough for Arch Manning. He had problems with his accuracy and even threw an interception. In the first three quarters, he failed to complete any passes longer than five yards, going 0-for-5.

Overall, many of his throws were not accurate. About 37% of his passes were off target. Then, after his game against San Jose State, CBS Sports analyst Bryant McFadden launched a tough verdict on him.

“He’s not even the best quarterback in the state of Texas amongst college teams. When you look at some of the other college teams in Texas, there are quite a few quarterbacks that are playing better football than Arch right now.”

But just like a warrior, he took in all doubts and pressure with positivity and promised his fans to regain his momentum.

“I’ve got to play better,” Manning said. “A lot of quarterbacks, a lot of players, want to be great. I know I’m better than this. All my life I’ve been an accurate passer,” and says, “I’ve just got to get back to it.”

It was not all Arch Manning’s fault, as Texas’s offensive line also had big problems during the 2025 season. They allowed pressure on about 40.9% of plays, which was the worst in the SEC and one of the worst in the entire country. Because of this, Manning did not get enough time to throw the ball. For example, in the game against Florida, he was sacked 6 times and pressured 10 times, which made it very hard for him to play comfortably.

The main reason for this was that the offensive line was new and inexperienced. But then his improvement was clearly visible against Oklahoma, which had one of the top defenses. Texas won the game 23–6, and Manning played very well. He completed 21 out of 27 passes, which shows he was very accurate. He threw for 166 yards and scored 1 touchdown. Most importantly, he did not throw any interceptions. Now, with all last season’s struggles, Manning is also dealing with injury issues ahead of the upcoming season.

Arch Manning’s injury update

Arch Manning had a foot problem during the 2025 season. Even though it bothered him, he kept playing and managed it with regular treatment. After the season ended, he had a small surgery in January to fix the issue. Because of this, he could not practice fully in spring and had to limit his workouts while recovering.

Even with this issue, Manning remained the main and most important player for Texas as their starting quarterback. In the previous season, he performed well by throwing for 3,163 yards, 26 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions, with a 61.4% completion rate.

Reports also confirmed that his surgery affected his practice time. Last week, as per Orangebloods.com, it was seen that he was still limited in workouts, which showed he was still recovering and not fully fit yet. So, for now, the team is hoping for Manning’s fast recovery and return to the field so that they can use this offseason to build chemistry within the team.