{"id":43287,"date":"2025-11-10T14:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T14:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/43287\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T14:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T14:53:09","slug":"a-rollercoaster-season-with-manning-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/43287\/","title":{"rendered":"A rollercoaster season with Manning"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 A month ago, preseason No. 1<\/a> Texas had fallen to 3-2, was unranked<\/a> and star quarterback Arch Manning<\/a> was being mocked as a bust.<\/p>\n

Look at them now: with a four-game winning streak, including two victories over opponents who were in the top 10, the conversation about the Longhorns is starting to turn.<\/p>\n

The new topic is how No. 10 Texas (7-2, 4-1 SEC) is right back in the hunt for a berth in the Southeastern Conference championship game and flirting with the College Football Playoff<\/a>, where the Longhorns were No. 11 in the initial rankings.<\/a><\/p>\n

After an open date this weekend, Texas now heads to No. 5 Georgia (8-2, 6-1, No. 5 CFP) on Saturday night. It will be the start of a make-or-break stretch that will determine if the Longhorns can live up to those lofty preseason expectations as national title contenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got three big games to go in November. But none bigger than Georgia,\u201d Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. \u201cI do think we\u2019re playing better football that we have all year.\u201d<\/p>\n

That starts with Manning.<\/p>\n

The betting favorite<\/a> for the Heisman Trophy in August, Manning\u2019s poor start saw him ridiculed by some as a flop. But his play of late has been much better, with 674 yards passing and six touchdowns with just one interception over the past two games.<\/p>\n

Manning was named SEC offensive player of the week after Texas\u2019s win over Vanderbilt<\/a>, which came a week after getting a concussion<\/a> that knocked him out of overtime against Mississippi State. A quarterback who was hesitant and missing open receivers early in the season is now reading through checkdowns and hitting his targets in coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe the concussion helped,\u201d Manning joked.<\/p>\n

Sarkisian has praised his quarterback\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t mature enough at quarterback. And Arch will tell you where he is today is not where he was a month ago,\u201d Sarkisian said.<\/p>\n

Slimmest of margins and big-play bailouts<\/p>\n

Texas doesn\u2019t dominate anyone. The streak includes two wins over top 10 opponents, but also has some very nervy moments against teams near the bottom of the SEC.<\/p>\n

Texas escaped Kentucky with a 13-10 overtime victory. A week later, it was more overtime drama in a 41-35 thriller in Starkville. Both times, Texas needed big, late-game punt returns from Ryan Niblett to survive.<\/p>\n

Texas led Vanderbilt 34-10 before the Commodores rallied with three fourth-quarter touchdowns. Texas survived when Vanderbilt\u2019s onside kick in the final minute rolled out of bounds, barely out of reach of a Commodores player.<\/p>\n

SEC and playoffs still within reach<\/p>\n

The 3-2 start included a season-opening 14-7 loss<\/a> at Ohio State, which has been No. 1 ever since, and a damaging loss to Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The losses leave Texas with little room to spare in the SEC standings and the CFP. Sarkisian has said he doesn\u2019t think a team with two league losses will make the conference title game.<\/p>\n

But big things can happen if Texas can stay hot. After Georgia comes home games against Arkansas and rival No. 3 Texas A&M.<\/p>\n

Sarkisian noted that when Texas won the Big 12 in 2023, a mid-season loss to Oklahoma meant they had to win out to get to the league title game. That included a couple of tight victories, including an overtime win over Kansas State.<\/p>\n

Last season\u2019s mid-season loss to Georgia also meant they couldn\u2019t afford to stumble again. Texas won out, including beating Texas A&M on the road, to make the league title game in the Longhorns\u2019 first season in the SEC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t really new to us. We\u2019ve been in this arena,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a tribute to our culture of guys just continuing to believe in what they need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 A month ago, preseason No. 1 Texas had fallen to 3-2, was unranked and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2901,555,557,132,134,133,5604,223,154,27,19634],"class_list":{"0":"post-43287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-app-college-sports","9":"tag-app-sports","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-austin","12":"tag-austin-headlines","13":"tag-austin-news","14":"tag-austin-what-you-need-to-know","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-ut-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}