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    Jeff Howe
    Arch Manning wasn’t among the 13 quarterbacks selected in the 2025 NFL Draft. Nevertheless, the rising redshirt sophomore poised to lead a Texas team with national championship aspirations was mentioned as much as the baker’s dozen who were picked over the draft’s seven rounds, as the potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 draft.
    Monday’s Touchdown Club of Houston luncheon wasn’t the first time Steve Sarkisian has been asked about Manning’s future on the Forty Acres. Still, the question wasn’t about Manning handling being the Longhorns’ backup quarterback.
    Instead, Sarkisian was asked during a fan Q&A at the Bayou City Event Center if he had “a sense whether” Manning would be at Texas one year or two years, since he’s eligible to enter next year’s draft.
    “Here’s what I hope,” Sarkisian said as nervous laughter broke out throughout the room. “I hope he's got a really hard decision to make on — about Jan. 21. That means he played a long time, that means he probably had a really good season, and that means that he's trying to figure out, 'Do I want one more year in the burnt orange? Or is it time to go to the NFL?'
    “I hope it's a really, really hard decision,” he added. “I hope it's not a no-brainer to come back to school.”
    The discussion of Manning becoming the third No. 1 overall pick in his family (Peyton Manning in 1998 and Eli Manning in 2004) after one season as QB1 for the Longhorns is acceptable post-spring practice fodder. Any prolonged draft speculation falls somewhere on a relevance spectrum between writers, reporters, and publishers openly pining for Manning to be the quarterback of the future for the team they cover and content mills farming for clicks.
    The expectation has long been for Manning to spend at least two seasons at the wheel of Sarkisian’s offense. Regardless, it would be a surprise if Sarkisian isn’t asked about the length of Manning’s stay in Austin several times before Texas opens the 2025 season on the road in a Cotton Bowl rematch with reigning national champion Ohio State on Aug. 30.
    Longhorn fans are fortunate to follow a football program covered by media outlets (OTF among them) wise enough to avoid giving in to the temptation to drive pointless narratives involving the 6-foot-4-inch, 222-pound quarterback with the potential to help Texas secure the program’s first national title since 2005. The same goes for ESPN’s Matt Miller and NFL.com's Lance Zierlein, who did their respective parts to stamp out the idea that Manning is destined to headline the 2026 draft.
    “I won’t be doing any draft work on Arch for 2026,” Miller wrote. “He’s probably a 2027 player. He could be a 2028 player.”
    Zierlein pointed out two notable facts: Peyton and Eli Manning "both played four years of college ball,” he wrote, and Arch Manning has the earning potential through NIL deals to put off the NFL until he and his family decide it's time to go.
    “Why do people think Arch is going to be in the 2026 draft?” he wrote.
    The circus might slow down, but it won’t stop. For Texas fans already tired of opposing fans and the football media anxiously awaiting Manning’s departure, heeding Sarkisian’s advice should help maintain everyone’s sanity and enjoy what could be an unprecedented era of Longhorn football.
    “Let’s let this guy go play this year,” Sarkisian said. “Let's let him have fun, finally getting his opportunity to be the starting quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. It's been a lifelong dream for this guy to do this.
    “It's finally his time,” he added. “I hope he can just have an opportunity to enjoy it and enjoy it the right way because, like a lot of guys from our team, he's been dreaming about this his whole life, and now he gets an opportunity to go do it.
    “I just want to make sure that we all support him in this journey.”
    Bobby Burton
    Steve Sarkisian recap of NFL Draft:
     “There’s nothing like seeing our players achieve their lifelong dreams of being drafted to the NFL, and that goes for the ones that will sign as free agents, too. When you look at last year’s draft with a school-record 11 guys, and this year breaking that with 12, that’s 23 players in two years drafted off a team that in year one (in 2021) we didn’t have any. That says a lot about the work these guys have poured into building our program and the trajectory of where we’re headed because of these guys. This group of guys went to back-to-back college football playoff semifinals, led us to top-five rankings the last two years, won the Big 12, were in the SEC Championship game in overtime – things that hadn’t been done at Texas for a long time. They set a standard and there’s a lot of be proud of with this group because of what they’ve meant to our program. To think, when we got here there were 32 players total from Texas on rosters in the NFL and when you add this group in, we’ve nearly equaled that number in the last three drafts (28) – 23 in the last two alone – which is pretty incredible. I couldn’t be prouder of every one of these guys and the future they have ahead of them. It’s not really when you get drafted, it’s what you do with the opportunity, and I’m confident all these guys – along with the ones signing as free agents –understand that and will maximize the opportunity in front of them.”
     “These guys are one of the groups that helped change the culture of our program. We were excited to see their names called on draft day, but more importantly, want to let the teams that picked them know that they’ll not only give it their all on the field, but be great teammates, tremendous representatives of their franchises and outstanding members of the community. We are incredibly proud of each and every one of them and so happy for them and their families.”
     “They really put in the work, bought in, committed to being great, and it says a lot about our staff and all they poured into them, as well. Their explosiveness and power, football IQ, ability to do a great job interviewing with teams, the way they conduct themselves, those are all things we take great pride in here, and these guys are a great reflection of that. It’s a great moment for them and their families, but it’s also definitely motivating for the guys that are on our roster now. The message to them is if you follow the recipe for success here and focus on team success, the individual accolades, awards and honors will come. We’ve got a hungry group that wants to help the team be successful. It’s a roster full of ‘want to’ guys and not ‘have to’ guys, and I credit a lot of the players before them for creating that ‘want to’ mentality that our team has right now.”
    Jeff Howe
    Strong leadership helped guide Texas into the College Football Playoff semifinals the last two seasons. Along with the talent Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns have lost, quality leaders from the 2023 and 2024 rosters have departed the Forty Acres.
    A new leadership nucleus is forming during spring practice. Based on the early returns and what Sarkisian, Arch Manning and Quintrevion Wisner have said in their recent post-practice press scrums, the current Texas squad oozes intensity and swagger, which are rubbing off of a robust group of new faces in the locker room.
    “We come with just a tad bit more juice. Just a tad,” Wisner said on Thursday. “No offense to older guys, but the younger guys, we definitely have more energy.
    “We've got a bunch of freshmen new to the playing lifestyle,” he added. “For them to come in and match our energy and juice is good.”
    With Manning, Wisner and DJ Campbell setting the tone on offense, and Anthony Hill, Colin Simmons and Michael Taaffe leading the defense, these leaders have what it takes to end the program’s 20-year national championship drought.
    That’s saying a lot. It’s an incredibly high bar to clear.
    Nevertheless, these Longhorns give off vibes similar to the 2008 team, one that was more than deserving of a chance to play for the national title.
    Quan Cosby, Colt McCoy, Roy Miller and Brian Orakpo led a club that was arguably college football’s best. The young, inexperienced members of the roster — Sam Acho, Keenan Robinson, Earl Thomas and Fozzy Whittaker among them — got in line, helping Texas win 25 of 27 games over two seasons, including the program’s most recent conference championship before the Longhorns won the Big 12 on their way out of the league in 2023.
    Sarkisian now knows the quality depth it takes to play upwards of 17 games to be the last team standing when the curtain falls on the CFP at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on Jan. 19, 2026. That’s why the positive early returns on the likes of James Simon, the young wide receivers (Parker Livingstone and four newcomers: Jaime Ffrench, Kaliq Lockett and Daylan McCutcheon and Michael Terry III), Brandon Baker, Nick Brooks, Nate Kibble, Graceson Littleton, Kade Phillips and Santana Wilson are significant developments to monitor as the overall outlook on depth clears up.
    “This is the most young players we've ever had at one time in spring practice,” Sarkisian said during his press conference on Tuesday. “It's been a little bit different for us.”
    According to ESPN.com’s Bill Connelly, Texas enters Sarkisian’s fifth season ranked No. 103 nationally in returning production. Of the 136 FBS programs, the Longhorns are 126th in returning offensive production.
    Still, that shouldn’t keep the Longhorns from competing for the SEC title and getting over the CFP semifinal hump.
    For starters, what Texas lacks in experience it makes up for in talent. Furthermore, the exodus of players with COVID-19 eligibility waivers coinciding with the neverending roster volatility created by the transfer portal has the Longhorns facing the same reality Ohio State (No. 101 in returning production), Georgia (No. 105), Oregon (No. 109), Ole Miss (No. 113 and other SEC and/or national title contenders.
    “These young guys want to be good and they bring good energy,” Manning said on Thursday. “That's what makes practice more fun.”
    With half of spring practice over, Manning has laid the foundation needed to make that vision a reality.
    “He's got a very infectious personality and I think people gravitate to him,” Sarkisian said of Manning on Tuesday. “One of the things I see right now is, naturally, he's leading a group of some younger players, especially the skill spots, like at the wideout spot. His confidence, I think, helps them. His understanding, his ability to connect to those guys in between series and talk to him has been helpful.
    “I also see a competitive spirit affecting the defensive side of the ball,” he added. “I think they like competing against Arch. I think they know he's going to talk a little smack to them. He's going to have fun with it, and I think that's bringing out some personality in an Anthony Hill or a [Malik] Muhammad or a Michael Taaffe.
    “Every day is competitive because they know 16 is going to bring it and if he gets them, he's going to let them know about it.”
    Sarkisian has hammered growth home leading up to spring practice, and he mentioned it several times on Tuesday.
    If Manning starts to trend upward, and the team’s growth mirrors his, Texas can head into the postseason as a team nobody wants to face.
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — Even with Saturday’s 7-4 win over No. 3 Georgia securing a second series win over a top-three SEC foe, there are six weekends of conference play left in the regular season. It's too early for No. 5 Texas to celebrate.
    Still, Jalin Flores and Will Gasparino highlighted a five-run seventh inning with two-run doubles and righty Max Grubbs held the Bulldogs scoreless during 3.1 scoreless innings of relief, propelling the Longhorns to their 11th come-from-behind win of the season. Pulling off such an effort — ignited when Texas (25-4, 10-1 SEC) trailed Georgia (29-4, 8-3) in the fifth inning, 4-0, and Jaquae Stewart drilled a 409-foot laser to right field for a two-run home run — against one of the nation’s hottest clubs (the Bulldogs had won 26 of their last 27 games coming into the series with three series wins in a row over ranked opponents) — is a credit to the championship culture coach Jim Schlossnagle has established in his first season on the Forty Acres.
    If the Longhorns hadn’t bought into Schlossnagle’s mantra of playing to a standard instead of the scoreboard when he accepted the job last summer, they wouldn’t be the first SEC squad to reach the 10-win mark in conference play.
    “We pitch well enough to where, when we're down, we're not normally down by a ton,” Schlossnagle said. “We've set a culture where you just keep playing and try to keep your eyes off the scoreboard.”
    That’s an apropos description of starting pitcher Luke Harrison’s day.
    The southpaw allowed three RBI doubles among six hits during a 5.2-inning outing (96 total pitches). Nevertheless, Harrison minimized his mistakes (one walk, a balk, and two hit batters) and fired a career-high nine strikeouts before passing the baton to Grubbs, who gave up just two hits and struck out two without allowing any free passes.
    “He kept us in the ballgame,” Schlossnagle said of Harrison. “He kept us close enough.”
    Stewart’s home run was one of the few mistakes Brian Curley made while limiting Texas to three hits and striking out nine over five innings. The Longhorns didn’t panic or press. Instead, they stuck to their process of taking pitches and working counts while looking for an opportune time to strike.
    “An at-bat in the seventh inning needs to be the same as an at-bat in the third,” Schlossnagle said. “It should be at least. We see pitches and try to use the whole field and don't panic. Make the pitcher bring it over the plate.”
    One of the key statistics Schlossnagle tracks in the free pass battle. Texas finished the game with a plus-4 edge in free passes, 7-3. Walks preceding the big extra-base blows by Stewart, Flores and Gasparino helped the Longhorns make the most of their clutch hits.
    “I think we've played really good team offense for two days, and then we try to get the timely hit,” Schlossnagle said regarding what worked at the plate through the first two games of the series. Saturday's win improved the team's record to 3-1 when trailing after six innings.
    “Just sticking with how we like to play offense,” he added. “We don't have as many marquee players — nationally known marquee players — in there, but Flores came up big today with his best at-bat. Obviously, Gasparino has been swinging the bat really well for a while.”
    The same approach that led to a series-clinching win over Georgia positioned Texas for a ninth-inning rally in Tuesday’s 5-3 loss to Texas State. Whereas Kimble Schuessler’s two-out line drive in the bottom of the ninth lacked the lift to get over Dawson Park’s head at second base, Ethan Mendoza’s seventh-inning fly ball got caught in a stiff breeze blowing out to right field, causing outfielder Dan Jackson to misplay it, resulting in an error.
    With runners in scoring position, the next batter up was Flores, who laced the game-tying double to the wall in center field.
    While Schlossnagle would prefer the Longhorns play from ahead, the mindset required to string together come-from-behind wins should benefit Texas over the long haul. Maintaining pitch-by-pitch, inning-by-inning, game-by-game mentality is the only way Texas can make the most of a red-hot start while facing some of the best teams in the SEC.
    “When you have some comeback wins then you don't panic and you just keep playing,” Schlossnagle said. “It doesn't spook you when you get behind.”
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — When Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle and pitching coach Max Weiner recruited Jared Spencer out of the NCAA transfer portal last summer, they anticipated he’d be a starting pitcher. It wasn’t a certainty considering the 6-foot-3-inch, 210-pound southpaw only made 11 starts in three seasons at Indiana State.
    What Spencer did in Friday’s 5-1 win over No. 3 Georgia provided further evidence that their hunch was correct. The work Spencer has done under Weiner’s tutelage helped him win the job heading up the weekend rotation in the Longhorns’ first season in the SEC, playing the role of staff ace to perfection in front of 7,246 fans at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
    “Max felt like we could get him some extra pitches,” Schlossnagle said regarding Spencer's recruitment. With Weiner’s help, Spencer developed a changeup to go along with the fastball and slider he relied on heavily during his time with the Sycamores.
    “He can really pitch,” Schlossnagle said. “I think he’s showing professional baseball he’s capable of being a starting pitcher.”
    Spencer once again showed the SEC he’s worthy of being the ace of the pitching staff for No. 5 Texas (24-4, 9-1 SEC), setting the tone for a critical three-game conference series against the Bulldogs. Running his fastball up to 97 mph and mixing it with a slider he used to ring up eight of the 11 Georgia (29-3, 8-2) batters he struck out, Spencer shut the Bulldogs down to the tune of a season-low one run on two hits while throwing a career-high 111 pitches in 7.2 brilliant innings on the bump.
    When asked how he’d describe the win, which allowed the Longhorns to keep pace with No. 1 Tennessee (the reigning national champions no-hit Texas A&M in a 10-0 run-rule victory in Knoxville on Friday) atop the SEC standings, Schlossnagle said it was because Texas had “a great pitcher.”
    “To me, the game begins and ends with starting pitching, even though it’s not as prevalent these days to see guys go deep in games,” said Schlossnagle, who mentioned the two-hit, complete-game shutout with 14 strikeouts No. 7 LSU got from Kade Anderson in a 2-0 win over No. 10 Oklahoma on Thursday. Spencer, Schlossnagle said, “is right up there” with the Tigers' dominant lefty, especially after what he did to a Georgia lineup that entered the game leading Division I home runs per game (2.71) and slugging percentage (.629) while ranking second in hits (339), runs per game (10.5) and on-base percentage (.466) with a .324 team batting average that was No. 14 nationally before Spencer befuddled the Bulldog bats.
    “The story is Spencer,” Schlossnagle said. “You’re holding down that offense. The wind was blowing in early, but the balls we hit went out, and the one ball they hit went out. They're certainly capable of changing the game with one swing.”
    Georgia left fielder Nolan McCarthy’s seventh home run of the season was a 391-foot blast to left field in the top of the seventh inning. Thankfully, the Longhorns had a 5-0 lead at the time, with an RBI double by Kimble Schuessler and two-run home runs by Casey Borba and Will Gasparino (his seventh in the team’s last six games) doing the damage in the middle innings.
    It’s a lot to toe the rubber as the Friday starter for a program that’s won six national championships and whose tradition of starting pitching is second to none. Still, whether it’s embracing the role as the staff ace, shaking off a home run that broke up a shutout or laughing after firing a pitch over the head of Rylan Galvan to the backstop in the eighth inning, Spencer’s mental makeup is helping him climb the ranks of starting pitchers in the SEC as much or more than his electric array of pitches.
    “He's a big, strong guy from Michigan that doesn't get phased by things,” Schlossnagle said. “What's really awesome about Spence is he had to go through a lot of summer school stuff to get enough credits to transfer into Texas after three years of college. It's really hard to do. He could've said 'screw that' at any time and signed because he got drafted. It tells you a lot about him that he went through that because he wanted to be here.
    “He and Max together are a great combination.”
    After getting the Longhorns started on the right foot against the Bulldogs, Spencer ranks among the SEC leaders in innings pitched (tied for fourth) and strikeouts (sixth). Spencer is the face of a Texas pitching staff that came into the series ranked No. 3 nationally in ERA (3.13), sixth in hits allowed per nine innings (6.99) and ninth in walks and hits allowed per nine innings pitched (a 1.19 WHIP).
    Even with Spencer surrendering the home run to McCarthy, the Longhorns have allowed an SEC-low 15 long balls through 28 games. Texas has given up the third-fewest hits in the SEC (186), while a .212 batting average for the Longhorns’ opponents is tied for the third-best in the conference.
    With Spencer leading the charge and Weiner working his magic behind the scenes, a pitching revival is afoot on the Forty Acres. For his part, Spencer isn’t thinking too far into the future.
    Instead, he's living by Weiner's advice, taking a one-pitch-at-a-time approach to his final college baseball season. That's helping him embrace his role and have fun while doing his best to put Texas in the win column whenever he's given the ball.
    “I'm taking it day by day, enjoying it while I'm there,” Spencer said. “[I’m] grateful for the opportunity that I have. I’ll enjoy it and have fun while I can.”
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