Turns out that Steve Sarkisian’s Texas has got the best warriors. As per On3’s 2025 Industry Ranking football Team Recruiting Rankings, the Longhorns are the No.1 class with 25 recruits. However, Sarkisian’s team is yet another example of how sometimes rankings might not materialize into reality. They had their first scrimmage on August 9, Saturday. And the report card did not look that good.
As Orangebloods.com tweeted, “The Longhorn defense DOMINATED in Saturday’s scrimmage “The offense could barely move against the defense. When they moved the ball, the defense eventually stopped them.” – A source told @AnwarRichardson.” And what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Sarkisian’s Arch Manning dream is falling down like a house of cards. A week later, the Longhorns held another scrimmage, and this time what did Sarkisian say about their second feat?
On August 16, Inside Texas posted a clip of Sarkisian’s post-scrimmage interview. The head coach said, “I think to get it started, I was really proud of our players this week in their approach to things that we wanted to improve upon. Last week, we were really not very good from an operational standpoint offensively, pre-snap penalties, illegal procedures, illegal formations.” During their first scrimmage, Sarkisian’s offense had taken a backseat. And as usual, his defense kept on showing its consistency. That was nothing new for the Longhorns’ fans as the defense ranked as the No.3 in the nation last season, where they averaged 283.4 yards per game, which included 109.6 yards on the ground.
Steve Sarkisian speaking after the Longhorns’ second scrimmage pic.twitter.com/tey7pyEPGL
— Inside Texas (@InsideTexas) August 16, 2025
But looks like something is concerning Sarkisian, and that’s their offense. As after their last scrimmage, Unnecessary Roughness tweeted, “Outside of a big Ryan Wingo touchdown from Arch Manning, the Texas offense struggled to move the ball during the scrimmage. The defense challenged the offense.” Last season, Sarkisian had a hard time with a struggling offense, where they horribly fell to 26.5 points against power conference opponents. But that should not have been the case. After all, Sarkisian had bolstered the unit with all the necessary elements- a returning quarterback, a stout offensive line. And after the second scrimmage, has the scene slightly improved?
Sarkisian looked a lot calmer and said, “I thought we did a much better job of that today. I think we had two. I think last week we might have had 10, 11 of them. So to have two of those, I thought, was really good.” The focus for the Longhorn boys has been mainly on cleaning up pre-snap penalties on offense. And the result? Instead of double-digit penalties, they only had two. They focused on the penalty situation as it kills drives, wastes scoring opportunities, and injects energy for the rival to pounce on them. Talking about Manning, looks like Sarkisian’s quarterback is repeating the same 2024 woes.
Steve Sarkisian’s review of Arch Manning hints at ghosts of the past
The latest flagbearer of the Manning legacy, it was obvious for Manning to catch up the Heisman hype and the NFL buzz even before donning the starter’s jersey. But it’s college football. Nobody can pass away just flashing the card of one’s heavy last name. They got to prove their part on the gridiron. The same goes for Sarkisian’s quarterback. Manning now has to fight with the ‘unproven’ tag. As George Stoia said on his podcast, “Let’s be real. He was at Washington State; he didn’t play the competition he’s going to play in the SEC now.”
But forget proving against power rivals. Had Manning proved himself during the scrimmage, it would have given him an upper hand. But poor Manning! Turns out that he is walking on the same path as his predecessor, Quinn Ewers. Time to recap the CFP semifinal between Texas and Ohio State. Sarkisian’s Texas found itself on the doorstep at the 1-yard line late in the fourth quarter. Thanks to their two costly defensive pass interference penalties.
What looked like a golden chance to seize the lead turned sour. Jerrick Gibson’s struggle began as he was stopped short on first down, and on the next play. Things turned awry when Quintrevion Wisner was dragged down for a crushing seven-yard loss. And at the end, Quinn Ewers misfired on a pass intended for Ryan Wingo. Double trouble loomed for Sarkisian’s former quarterback, who got sacked on fourth down. Thus clear display of red zone woes. And Ewers’ shadow is spotted in Manning now. As Steve Sarkisian reported after the fall camp, “The red zone was pretty good, but I thought we missed a couple of opportunities, quite frankly.” With this already, Manning’s road to Heisman fame is filled with speed bumps.
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