One thing Sarkisian can take to the bank heading into the opening game of his sixth season on the Forty Acres, however, is that he and Arch Manning are in a much different place than they were at this time last year.
And by different, Manning and the Longhorn offense are better positioned for success.
“I think last year, offensively, was a little bit of a work in progress,” Sarkisian said on Monday. “We were probably a little too young around Arch as much as it was Arch's first year starting. Trying to figure out what he felt very good with, but also what the other guys could do well.”
The first half of Manning’s 13-game starting campaign was largely forgettable. When Texas traveled to Florida for last season’s SEC opener in early October, Manning averaged 222 passing yards per game, ranking ninth out of 16 qualifying quarterbacks in the conference. Manning also ranked ninth in the league in pass efficiency rating (154.0) and yards per pass attempt (8.4) and 15th out of 16 SEC quarterbacks in completion percentage (61.3).
Fortunately, Manning wrapped up his third year in the program playing as well as any quarterback in the country. In November, a month in which the Longhorns won three of their four games, including victories over No. 9 Vanderbilt and No. 3 Texas A&M, Manning ranked third in the SEC in passing yards per game (286.6) and passing touchdowns (nine) while completing 62.2 percent of his passes and committing just one turnover.
The hard lessons throughout the first half of 2025 will, hopefully, lead to Manning and the offense enjoying a faster, more prosperous start to 2026. An older, more seasoned Manning should also benefit from the talent Sarkisian’s organization acquired in the offseason to bolster Manning’s supporting cast.
The transfer portal additions should make the conditions ripe for Manning to do his job without feeling undue pressure to carry the offense on his shoulders. At the same time, the Bobcats will face a more experienced Longhorn offense than the one Sarkisian fielded in last season’s 14-7 loss to Ohio State.
Manning led an offense into the much-ballyhooed battle with the Buckeyes for his third career start with four of the 10 starters around him making their collegiate starting debuts (Brandon Baker, Parker Livingstone, Connor Stroh and Ryan Wingo). Even with DJ Campbell (30 starts entering his senior season), Jack Endries (26 starts at Cal) and Tre Wisner (12 starts) boasting significant starting experience, the 10 starters who took the field with Manning for the first snap inside the Horseshoe combined for 93 career starts.
Even if Trevor Goosby’s injured left knee forces him to miss Saturday’s game (Andre Cojoe is in line to make his starting debut if Goosby can’t go), Baker, Wingo, Raleek Brown, Cam Coleman, Connor Robertson, Laurence Seymore, Melvin Siani, Hollywood Smothers and Michael Masunas enter Saturday’s game with 139 career starts between them.
The defense got the better of the offense in the team’s two camp scrimmages, with Sarkisian acknowledging Monday that Will Muschamp’s unit ended camp ahead of the offense.
Nevertheless, Sarkisian came out of camp encouraged by the new-look offense, specifically with the group’s ability to create explosive plays.
“The explosive play component to our offense is really important, that we can generate those,” said Sarkisian, whose offense tallied 59 20-plus-yard plays from scrimmage last season, which tied for eighth in the SEC and 51st in FBS. “Now, the level of efficiency — my goal is that it continues to improve when the defense isn't going against the same plays over and over and over, and the windows maybe aren't quite as tight and the run holes aren't quite as tight.”
It will take time for Sarkisian’s offense to build the chemistry and consistency it needs to operate at a championship-caliber level.
What must show signs of improvement right out of the gate, however, is a running game that fell well below the program’s standard in 2025. Texas averaged a lowly 3.27 yards per attempt against SEC defenses last season and wrapped up conference play with the league’s second-worst rushing offense (93.1 yards per game), with Manning becoming a much bigger part of the rushing attack than Sarkisian anticipated.
“It wasn't great that we didn't really have a run game around him to where he became the run game, but that was what we needed to do to try to be successful,” Sarkisian said of Manning, who led the Longhorns with 21 rushing attempts of 10 or more yards, according to Pro Football Focus. Manning also finished second on the team with 15 missed tackles forced and recorded 358 yards on scrambles, according to PFF, ranking fourth in the SEC and No. 14 nationally.
Sarkisian’s goal is for the 2026 offense to operate with more balance. That can only happen if Texas plays cleaner football.
Last season, the Longhorns ranked 134th nationally in penalties per game (8.3). They finished the season ranked 132nd in the country in penalty yards per game (69.7), which contributed to the offense getting behind the chains and recording a Sarkisian-era low 39.2 percent conversion rate on third down (No. 73 in FBS).
“The goal is that we can put ourselves in more manageable situations, most notably third down,” Sarkisian said. “Staying out of third-and-seven-plus, third-and-10-plus situations — that's not fun for any quarterback and that's not fun for an offensive line.”
Everything around Manning improving should raise the offense’s floor. To what extent Manning and Sarkisian are on the same page could significantly raise the ceiling on that side of the ball.
Although Sarkisian is giving Manning more freedom at the line of scrimmage, the quarterback can begin to put his spin on the play-caller’s offense and put himself in the best position to succeed on Saturday based on what happens Friday. That’s when the tone of the conversations between Sarkisian and the Longhorn quarterbacks shifts.
That’s also when Sarkisian might get his best feeling for how far Manning has grown since making his road starting debut in Columbus more than a year ago.
“On Friday, I sit with them (the quarterbacks) and we talk game plan, we talk play calls, we talk situational football; 'here's what I'm thinking, do you like it? Do you not like it?' I don't want to call anything that he doesn't feel great about and I try not to do that to him,” Sarkisian said. “The key to me in, now, Year 2 as a starter with Arch, is him having the ability to tell me he doesn't like one of the plays. You're not offending me, but I think, sometimes, a younger quarterback can be like, 'I don't want to tell him I don't like that play because he likes it.' I don't have to execute the play; I just call it. I want to make sure we're calling the plays for him that he believes in, that he has great faith in. That's what Friday's meeting is really for, that just because it's on the call sheet doesn't mean I have to call it. I want to call the things that he really likes and the things that he feels comfortable with.”
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