With football players missing seasons due to practice injuries, conditioning is the magic word being thrown everywhere. What would be considered a normal change in the body for a regular person, can be career ending for an athlete on the gridiron.

It gets worse by position as you can easily replace most tackles, receivers and defensive backs with the depth of your roster. But if your quarterback goes down, you might as well kiss your season goodbye. Not every roster has a backup like Trinidad Chambliss waiting on the bench to take over.

All of this brings us to the Longhorns. For Steve Sarkisian and every other fan in Austin, their season rests on the ability of Arch Manning to be on that field game after game. He knows it. Almost no other team’s winning chances are as wrapped up in a single player as it is for Texas and its quarterback.

Manning Was Out of Shape

Manning’s offseason was quiet on purpose. He could have made plenty of noise for himself. But the Texas QB1 stayed away from the noise and worked his way back into shape, keeping most details of his recovery private. By the time he returned to the field, he looked ready to go. In the background though, the system had shifted.

There was little indication of just how much Manning’s routine had changed while he was recovering from the procedure. Now, he has given a clearer picture of what those months actually looked like.

“I got up to like 236,” Manning said about his weight gain during his recovery process on Tuesday. “Yeah, I was a little chubby. So Coach (Torre) Becton ran us pretty good this summer. I shed some weight. I’m 220 now.”

Don’t mistake the downplaying being done by Arch here. He knows that if he showed any seriousness behind that sentiment, its gonna make front page news and make thousands across the city more anxious. But the facts are there for everyone. In order to get back to playing shape, Arch had to lose 16 pounds, while keeping his strength intact.

The Recovery

To make matters worse he had to wait until after recover. The reason was pretty simple for Arch: he could not run normally while his foot recovered. Manning underwent foot surgery after the 2025 season. Texas kept the details of Manning’s procedure fairly limited. The quarterback spent part of the spring easing back into football instead of taking on a full workload while his foot healed. By May, though, he had been medically cleared for summer workouts.

Manning’s legs are a major part of his game. He ran for 399 yards last season, excluding sack yardage, and scored 10 rushing touchdowns. He also had five runs of at least 20 yards, including a 60-yard touchdown run. His speed became one of the ways Texas could hurt defenses when passing plays broke down. So spending months unable to run was a real change for him. But Steve Sarkisian managed his injury diligently.

Losing 16 pounds usually risks losing muscle mass. To prevent this, he would have needed to eat fewer calories than he burned to drop the fat, but his diet would have required massive amounts of protein to ensure his body burned stored fat instead of lean muscle tissue.

The Texas head coach already knew what Manning could do when healthy. There was no point in turning a manageable foot issue into something that could follow him into the season. Manning, therefore, did not take a normal route through spring practice. He threw the ball, but his participation was limited. Sarkisian said he was progressing on schedule, and the QB gradually increased his workload. By the Manning Passing Academy in June, he looked much closer to his normal self.

“Well, he’s (Arch Manning) had a great camp, man,” Steve Sarkisian said on August 25, as per Inside Texas. “I’m pumped about it. I think his rapport with Ryan (Wingo) and Cam (Coleman), and Emmett (Mosley) is really high. I think his rapport with the running backs is really high. I feel like he could be better. But I love the way he finished.”

The Longhorns enter the season ranked among the country’s top-5 teams, and the program has rebuilt the offense around Manning. Texas added running backs Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown. Cam Coleman arrived from Auburn. So, this year, Sarkisian wants Manning to have more help than he had a year ago. That could also mean less pressure on Manning to run the ball. That’s why managing his foot surgery became so important.

Arch Manning knows what he must improve this year

Arch Manning completed 61.4% of his passes last season. The number does not tell the whole story, though. Texas receivers dropped 22 passes, according to PFF, and the Longhorns did not have a running back rush for even 600 yards. Still, Manning knows his accuracy has to improve. He also enters 2026 with a much better supporting cast.

“Yeah, of course,” Manning said about his aim to improve accuracy. “I want to keep the ball off the ground and away from the defense. How? You just got to throw a lot and get your timing down and keep trying to get better every day. I think (Saturday’s scrimmage) was a little sloppy and lethargic.”

This year, the timing of his foot surgery could not have been worse from a football standpoint. Manning was coming off his first full season as Texas’ starter. He had entered 2025 with enormous expectations, then struggled badly during the opening stretch. Texas started 3-2. Manning took plenty of heat. Now, he has a real chance to change that discourse as Texas faces Texas State on September 5.