Earlier this week, Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian was asked about his star quarterback, Arch Manning, and his early season struggles. The head man in Austin didn’t hold back.

“Yeah, I mean I’m going to go on a little soapbox here then I’m going to get back to an answer,” he said. “I think one thing that came out of this weekend as well, and I’m looking around the country at the ‘high-profile players,’ I don’t know if any of them are living up to what everybody said they were supposed to be.

“But we’re in this era right now of everybody’s got a phone, so everybody’s got Twitter. There’s 9,000 podcasts going on. The coverage over college football is more and more intense than it’s ever been. And so players are getting put up on these pedestals really quickly in their careers.”

"I really just don't make it bigger than it is, continue to be myself, be a normal guy, a normal student-athlete, and then go execute one play at a time."

-Arch Manning on how he handles the outside noise @TSTVSports | #HookEm pic.twitter.com/hIMPmQDEw5

— Kendell Ungar (@kendellungar) September 29, 2025

The transition from high school to Power 4 football is difficult.

College football is hard. High-level players everywhere and high-level coaches everywhere. And true freshmen breaking through immediately isn’t happening as often. This weekend Texas plays Florida. The Gators’ quarterback is another five-star who is taking some time to get his footing.

During the bye week, Sarkisian watched football. He told the media he felt like the pressure players put on themselves is palpable.

“I felt like this weekend I could feel some guys pressing,” Sarkisian said. “Not so different, maybe, than Arch was pressing early on to where they feel like they have to live up to whether it’s whatever they’re allegedly making through NIL, or because this is what the media is saying I’m supposed to be or not being. College football players are getting critiqued and criticized more now than they ever have in the past, too, so this is a different era we’re in.”

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Coaching staffs are more important than ever now. Especially for the case of Arch Manning.

Manning was expected to be the second coming almost immediately. You had talking heads comparing him to Andrew Luck and Joe Burrow when he was 16-years old. Now, he gets the No. 1 spot in the quarterback room, opens up his career as a starter on the road at Ohio State, and when he doesn’t light it up, the media rips him apart.

“We have to do a great job as coaches of, I don’t want to say shelter, but we’ve got to protect our guys because they’re not pros yet,” Steve Sarkisian said. “The majority of them probably will be, of the guys that I’m talking about.

“But we’ve got to do a really good job of putting them in the right mental space to where they’re still enjoying playing the game of college football with their college football teammates. To me, that’s the point to these guys. I think that they’ve got to play for the love of the game, because they do love the game. They need to play football and not work football.”

Everyone needs to remember Arch Manning is just getting started.

It’s a cautionary tale for high-profile recruits and the expectations we place on these young guys. Especially at quarterback. I talked about it earlier this week, being a quarterback in the SEC or the Big Ten or even the American, it’s hard. Sarkisian, though, has confidence Manning is about to turn the corner.

“I think that that’s something we’ve been working on with Arch, and I’m sure there’s a lot of other coaches around the country that are going through similar things in that realm,” Sarkisian said. “You could talk Ryan Wingo, very similar. Our guys are finally starting to relax. It took four games in to relax and play a little bit. But I could feel guys press this weekend as well watching them play. I hope for them that they can get through it. Our game’s better when the good players are playing really good.”