There may be a fanbase that has ever been more excited to replace their starting quarterback than the Texas Longhorns heading into the 2025 College Football season. The Longhorns faithful aren't slighting Quinn Ewers, as he helped bring the program back to relevance. However, ever since they signed Arch Manning, it's been a countdown until he becomes the starting quarterback.
Arch Manning has all of the ingredients to be one of those quarterbacks who take an entire fanbase by storm. The fanbase can look back at the success his uncles had at the College and NFL levels and hope that he's just the next to carry on the legacy. Arch himself is also a former 5-star recruit with impressive arm talent and the ability to extend plays with his legs.
The rushing ability is what will have Texas fans and maybe even Steve Sarkisian the most excited as it makes calling a defense against Texas much harder. In an interview with ESPN's Heather Dinich, Steve Sarkisian laid out the biggest difference in calling plays for Quinn Ewers as compared to Arch Manning.
"We may not change so much, but his ability to use his legs on third down in the red area to create plays when people are in man coverage and people are blitzing and there’s voids to go run, I think would be another component to that as well."Steve Sarkisian
It's not just an ability to scramble that will have Texas fans excited, but, Manning excels on designed runs which is something Steve Sarkisian hasn't been able to call last season. While it's much easier to run your backup quarterback as they shouldn't get worn down through the season, Sarkisian is going to emphasize with Arch the chances they have for big plays when he does take off.
As Texas breaks in a new receiving core, having a quarterback who can run means the defense has to have a player accounting for covering Arch, which will help the receivers get open. It'll be exciting to see just how often Steve Sarkisian calls designed runs this season, as they may be needed a ton early on.
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