Although they finished with a “disappointing” 10-3 record and highly-touted quarterback Arch Manning had his share of struggles early in the season, Steve Sarkisian’s Texas Longhorns squad will enter the 2026 season with sky-high expectations yet again.
Steve Sarkisian Not Concerned About Arch Manning’s Recovery
The biggest key to achieving the type of success the Longhorns would like in 2026 is Manning’s health and improvement, who entered the offseason with a “lingering” leg issue.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich spoke with Sarkisian, and he is not concerned with Manning’s recovery and sounds happy with his progress.
Sark told me Arch and Cam Coleman have been working really well together this month walking through plays and studying the offense … pic.twitter.com/IQo1vFxf1k
— Heather Dinich (@CFBHeather) February 26, 2026
“Texas quarterback Arch Manning is out of his boot and is starting to throw again after an off-season procedure on his foot to clean up a “lingering thing” that wasn’t serious coach Steve Sarkisian told me today,” reported Dinich. “Manning will be ‘limited, especially early on’ this spring, but Sarkisian said he’s not concerned and it will give the younger players a chance to get some more work in.”
Manning and the Longhorns were preseason No. 1, but their offense was shut down in an early-season loss to Ohio State that essentially kept them out of the postseason.
Sarkisian is excited for Manning’s growth entering his second year as the full-time starter.
“Having a year under his belt and us struggling as a team kind of offensively the first half of the season, and him going through the growing pains in the end, it was a good thing,” Sarkisian said.
“I think he gained a lot of confidence in the second half of the season, and I think we learned about him, he learned his style of play, and he came back with a really good mindset. This is his team. … In the end, naturally, he wants to go win a championship. The rest of the things will fall into place, but that’s where his mindset is. He’s the ultimate team player, and it shows every day.”
Manning completed 248-of-404 passes (61.4%) for 3,163 yards with 26 touchdowns and seven interceptions while rushing for another 399 yards and 10 touchdowns on 92 carries. He earned a PFSN CFB QB Impact score of 83.1, good for a B grade.
It’s obviously good to see one of college football’s biggest names getting healthy heading into spring ball. Although he will be limited in practice, it will allow others to get reps and still let Manning work with some of the new faces, specifically former Auburn wide receiver Cam Coleman. He left Auburn for the Longhorns this offseason and is expected to give Manning and the Horns a major boost for an offense that struggled at times last season.
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Coleman had 56 receptions for 708 yards and five touchdowns, playing mainly with Jackson Arnold, who struggled throughout the season. Things seemed to get a little better with Ashton Daniels leading the Auburn offense, which included a 45-38 overtime loss to Vanderbilt in which Coleman had 10 receptions for 143 yards and a touchdown, but it still wasn’t quite what many expected after Coleman averaged 16.2 yards per catch and had eight touchdowns as a true freshman in 2024.
Manning, Coleman, and the Longhorns will get their season underway when they host Texas State on September 5. Just a week later, they will host the Buckeyes in a rematch of last season’s 14-7 Ohio State victory.
