{"id":61750,"date":"2025-11-23T15:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T15:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/61750\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T15:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T15:03:14","slug":"arch-manning-leads-no-17-texas-over-arkansas-in-bid-to-keep-longhorns-playoff-hopes-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/61750\/","title":{"rendered":"Arch Manning leads No. 17 Texas over Arkansas in bid to keep Longhorns’ playoff hopes alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 Arch Manning passed for four touchdowns, ran for one and caught another as No. 17 Texas<\/a> beat Arkansas 52-37 on Saturday to keep the Longhorns clinging to hopes of making the College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n

Ranked No. 1 in the preseason, the Longhorns (8-3, 5-2, Southeastern Conference, No. 17 CFP<\/a> ) will have to beat third-ranked rival Texas A&M on Friday for a chance to make a case they deserve to be in the playoff for the third consecutive season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think we\u2019re playing good football,\u201d Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. \u201cThe best way we can impress anybody is going and winning next Friday night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manning, the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning, gets more impressive each week.<\/p>\n

He is the first Texas quarterback with passing<\/a>, running and receiving<\/a> touchdowns in a game. Manning passed for a career-high 389 yards, and his do-everything day showed how far he\u2019s come from the beginning of the season, when Texas struggled to a 3-2 start.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing through the tough games and the struggle, you know, I think you need that as a quarterback,\u201d Manning said. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy, but you try to overcome it. … Going through those tough experiences has helped me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manning connected with DeAndre Moore Jr. for three touchdowns. Manning\u2019s touchdown catch on a reverse pass from Parker Livingstone was an athletic grab where he had to twist his 6-foot-4 frame and reach high to make the play. Livingstone also had a 54-yard TD reception.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of sunny out and I lost it for a second,\u201d Manning said. \u201cHe threw it well (in practice). He\u2019s bailed me out a few times, so I had to bail him out.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his touchdown run<\/a> at the start of the third quarter, Manning cut twice to elude tacklers before lunging across the goal line for a 31-20 lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven going into the game, he feels different in pregame than he did two months ago,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cHe is playing at a high level at the right time for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arkansas (2-9, 0-7) kept it close early and was within 24-20 at halftime behind touchdown runs from quarterback Taylen Green and running back Mike Washington. <\/p>\n

Green threw an interception on Arkansas\u2019 first possession of the second half. The turnover set up another Texas touchdown when Manning escaped a sack and found Moore open in the back of the end zone. <\/p>\n

The takeaway<\/p>\n

Arkansas: The Razorbacks have lost nine in a row in a miserable season that saw coach Sam Pittman fired after five games. That stretch included six losses by six points or fewer before Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the second half we couldn\u2019t get off the field and turned the ball over,\u201d interim coach Bobby Petrino said. \u201cFor the first time, I felt like there was a couple of guys on the team whose attitude wasn\u2019t what it needed to be. And that\u2019s not what we are and not what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas: The Longhorns were missing starting linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. with a hand injury, and Sarkisian said he is hopeful that Hill will return against Texas A&M\u2019s explosive offense. The Longhorns\u2019 defense has surrendered at least 30 points in each of the last three games.<\/p>\n

Bevo gets a game ball<\/p>\n

Linebacker Liona Lefau scored the Longhorns\u2019 first defensive touchdown of the season on a 48-yard fumble return in the fourth quarter. He ran to the back of the end zone and tossed the ball into the pen holding Bevo, Texas\u2019 massive live steer mascot. Bevo appeared startled.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Arkansas hosts No. 22 Missouri next Saturday.<\/p>\n

Texas hosts No. 3 Texas A&M on Friday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a> and here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 Arch Manning passed for four touchdowns, ran for one and caught another as No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[32529,1892,4792,3127,2747,263,32680,261,416,32681,300,28061,32679,4054,154,3231,27,29,537,536,28,1760],"class_list":["post-61750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-anthony-hill-jr","tag-ap-top-25-college-football-poll","tag-ar-state-wire","tag-arkansas","tag-arkansas-razorbacks","tag-arkansas-razorbacks-football","tag-bobby-petrino","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-eli-manning","tag-football","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-mike-washington","tag-sam-pittman","tag-sports","tag-steve-sarkisian","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-football","tag-texas-news","tag-tx-state-wire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61750","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=61750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}