Behind the scenes of Arch Manning’s first start at Texas
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Max Olson, ESPN Staff Writer
AUSTIN, Texas — Arch Manning arrived in rather modest style.
Texas‘ team buses pulled up right on schedule outside Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium at 4:40 p.m. Saturday. Manning stepped onto San Jacinto Boulevard in a navy suit paired with a white shirt and a brown striped tie. On his shoulders, he carried a black backpack as well as the modest weight of Texas fans’ hopes and dreams.
Unlike most of his Longhorns teammates, though, Manning did not wear headphones. On the team’s traditional Stadium Stampede walk into the stadium, lined with fans cheering while holding phones and horns up, the young quarterback took it all in.
“You need some time to just appreciate the opportunity,” Manning said later. “I’m blessed to be in this situation. I don’t take it for granted.”
The fifth-largest crowd in school history packed into DKR to catch a glimpse of the future of Texas football, an extended preview of how a five-star talent with a legendary pedigree will lead this program a year from now.
What those 102,850 folks witnessed during No. 1 Texas’ 51-3 blowout of UL Monroe on Saturday night was a bit more reasonable than their wildest expectations. Manning’s performance in his first college start reminded everyone he’s right on schedule, right where he’s supposed to be in his developmental process.
The redshirt freshman played a lot like a redshirt freshman: Great and not great, with a healthy mix of highlights plays and helpful lessons. He gave himself a C-plus for the night after completing 15 of 29 passes for 258 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Manning might have the potential for greatness in Steve Sarkisian’s offense, but he has still played in only five college games. Six and a half hours after he first arrived at the stadium, he was feeling the difference.
“The games feel long when you’re in there for the majority of it,” Manning joked. “They’re a lot longer than high school. That was most surprising.”
The Longhorns losing starting QB Quinn Ewers to an oblique injury last week against UTSA opened the door for Manning to wow the college football world. He came in cold off the bench, delivered five touchdowns and made everything look a little too easy. It was a stunning display from a kid with 11 career pass attempts at the college level, a backup with a ton of fame but not much film.
For a week, Manning got to be QB1 while Ewers focused on getting healthy. The sharp uptick in Longhorns fans donning Manning’s No. 16 jersey was easy to spot around campus on Saturday afternoon. Inside the stadium team shop, authentic Ewers and Manning jerseys were going for $149.99. There were plenty of Ewers jerseys on the rack three hours before kickoff, but the Manning threads were long gone. The shop produced another run of his jerseys this week in anticipation of demand, but they went fast.
Brian and Jessica McCreary both donned No. 16 jerseys as they awaited the team’s arrival on Bevo Boulevard. They bought theirs last year. They have Ewers jerseys at home, too. The husband and wife were eager to see more from Manning, but Brian sees the big picture as clearly as Texas’ head coach.
“If you know football,” he said, “you know Quinn is our quarterback.”
Ewers didn’t enjoy missing a game but stayed upbeat on Texas’ sideline. The 25-game starter, wearing his No. 3 jersey over a jacket, had an earpiece in his left ear to hear playcalls and chatted with Manning throughout. But the assignment for the night wasn’t to coach him up. Ewers needed to get Manning to relax.
“We talked about him doing his best to keep it light with Arch,” Sarkisian said. “Because when Arch keeps it light, he’s really, really good. We try to not let him get too, too focused.”
Manning needed that encouragement early. His opening drive ended abruptly when he forced a throw under pressure on second-and-4 that was picked off. He knew he should’ve thrown it away. Rookie mistake. On the bench, left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. and center Jake Majors talked him down.
“It’s gonna happen, bro,” Banks said he told him. “Keep pushing.”
“Just keep being you,” Majors said.
“He holds himself to a high standard, which is good,” Banks said afterward, “so he definitely can have his moments where he gets real hard on himself.”
Sarkisian demands that next-play mentality to operate his system. The message in the week leading up to Manning’s first start: Don’t overanalyze, just execute. The game plan called for deep shots on ULM’s secondary. Manning hit quite a few, picking up 210 of his passing yards on eight completions.
The tradeoff? “When you get in that mode, sometimes you can start to get a little bit greedy,” Sarkisian said. Ask Manning what throws he’d like back and he can think of a few overthrows and underthrows in the second half that could’ve been checkdowns to easier completions.
“He was going to have some lessons learned,” Sarkisian said, “and I think that’s what tonight was about.”
It was never going to be about a quarterback controversy. Sarkisian made sure to set the record straight Thursday. It’s not just that Ewers is his quarterback. He foresees Ewers leading a national title run, going to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony and proving he’s a top-five draft pick. All of those goals are still on the table.
You won’t hear many head coaches publicly put that out there, but it speaks to Sarkisian’s confidence. Colt McCoy, back in town to be inducted into the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor, has lived with those expectations.
The last quarterback to lead Texas to a national title game sees greatness in both. McCoy knows Manning getting these reps will ultimately be beneficial for the entire team over the long haul of a 12-team College Football Playoff and the deep run this team is trying to make. And the Longhorns legend knows better than anyone what it takes to carry that weight.
“There’s a lot of pressure playing quarterback at the University of Texas, there’s a lot of expectations, everything that goes along with sort of being the guy,” McCoy said. “For them, I would just say you have a wonderful team around you.
“I mean, this team is built to win a championship. Just go out there and execute and stay focused and lean on each other.”
Former Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George was named the next head coach at Bowling Green on Sunday.
George agreed to a five-year deal, sources told ESPN.
His hiring came two days after George, who spent the past four seasons as the head coach at Tennessee State, was one of three finalists to interview for the position.
“Today, we add another transformative leader to this campus in Eddie George,” Derek van der Merwe, Bowling Green’s vice president for athletics strategy, said in a news release. “Our students are getting someone who has chased success in sports, art, business, and leadership. As our head football coach, he will pursue excellence in all aspects of competition in the arena. More importantly, beyond the arena, he will exemplify what excellence looks like in the classroom, in life, in business, and in relationships with people.”
George emerged as a successful head coach in the FCS at Tennessee State. This past season, he led the program to the FCS playoffs and a share of the OVC-Big South title, the school’s first league title in football since 1999.
“I am truly excited to be the head coach at Bowling Green State University,” George said in the news release. “Bowling Green is a wonderful community that has embraced the school and the athletics department. We are eager to immerse ourselves in the community and help build this program to the greatness it deserves. I am overwhelmed with excitement and joy for the possibilities this opportunity holds.”
George returns to the state where he rushed for 3,768 yards over four seasons as a running back for Ohio State, winning the Heisman Trophy in 1995.
George went on to star in the NFL for nine seasons, rushing for more than 10,000 yards. He was a 1996 first-round pick of the Houston Oilers and made his name by playing seven seasons in Nashville for the Titans, becoming the franchise’s all-time leading rusher. The Titans retired his jersey in 2019.
Tennessee State hired George despite his lack of traditional coaching experience, with the school president at the time calling the move “the right choice and investment” for the future of TSU. George has worked as an actor and entrepreneur and earned an MBA from Northwestern.
George paid back the administration’s faith by building Tennessee State into a winner, including a 9-4 season in 2024 that culminated in its first FCS playoff appearance since 2013. Tennessee State lost to Montana in the first round.
George’s hire at TSU continued the trend of former star players being hired at historically Black colleges and universities. Jackson State made the biggest splash in hiring Deion Sanders, who went on to a successful stint at Colorado. Michael Vick’s hire at Norfolk State and DeSean Jackson’s hire at Delaware State continued that trend in the current hiring cycle.
George will replace Scot Loeffler, who left the school to become the quarterbacks coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Bowling Green has become one of the top coaching springboards of this generation, with Urban Meyer, Dave Clawson and Dino Babers all advancing from the school to power conference jobs. Loeffler went 27-41 over six seasons, a run that included bowl appearances in each of the past three seasons.
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Eli Lederman
Defensive end prospect Richard Wesley, one of the nation’s top recruits in the 2027 high school class, has reclassified into the 2026 cycle and will sign with a college program later this year, he told ESPN on Friday.
A 6-foot-5, 245-pound pass rusher from Chatsworth, California, Wesley completed his sophomore season at Sierra Canyon (California) High School this past fall. His move marks the latest high-profile reclassification in the current cycle, following wide receiver Ethan “Boobie” Feaster (No. 21 in the ESPN Junior 300), tight end Mark Bowman (No. 23), running back Ezavier Crowell (No. 29) and cornerback Havon Finney Jr. (not ranked) in the line of the elite former 2027 prospects to reclassify into the 2026 class since the start of the new year.
ESPN has not yet released its prospect rankings for the 2027 class, but Wesley is expected to slot in among the nation’s top five defensive line recruits in 2026. He took unofficial visits to Oregon and Texas A&M in January and holds a long list of offers across the SEC, Big Ten and ACC.
Following his reclassification, Wesley told ESPN he will take trips to Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, Miami, Oregon, USC, Ole Miss and Texas A&M across March and April before finalizing a slate of official visits for later this spring.
“I really can’t say what the future holds for me,” Wesley said. “I’m excited for more opportunities to go talk with these coaches and see what they’re about. I’m really open to everyone that’s offered me and who really wants me in their program.”
Wesley emerged as one of the nation’s most coveted high school defenders after he totaled 55 tackles and 10 sacks in his freshman season at Sierra Canyon in 2023. He followed this past fall 44 tackles (16 for loss) with nine sacks and four forced fumbles as a sophomore.
The rash of reclassifications into the 2026 class comes after a series of top prospects opted to reclassify during the 2025 recruiting cycle, headlined by five-star recruits Julian Lewis (Colorado) and Jahkeem Stewart (USC) and Texas A&M quarterback signee Brady Hart. Wesley told ESPN that his decision to enter college early was motivated by conversations with college coaches and his belief that he will be physically ready to compete at the next level by the time his junior season ends later this year.
“All the colleges I talk to have shown me their recruiting boards and told me I’m at the top of their list at the position regardless of class,” Wesley said. “They’ve told me good things and they’ve told me the things I need to work on. I need to work on my violence. I’ve been grinding at that every single day.”
Wesley now joins a talented 2026 defensive end class that features 11 prospects ranked inside the top 100 in the ESPN Junior 300.
Five-star edge rusher Zion Elee, ESPN’s No. 1 defender in the class, has been committed to Maryland since this past December and closed his recruitment last month. JaReylan McCoy, a five-star prospect who decommitted from LSU in February, and four-stars Jake Kreul (No. 19 overall) and Nolan Wilson (No. 54 overall) stand among the cycle’s top uncommitted defensive ends.
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