Arch Manning Says He Will Die on the Hill of Letting It Rip: What That Means With Ole Miss Coming to Austin
Arch Manning was asked Monday what was going to change. His answer, as the Associated Press rendered it: “I’m gonna die on the hill of letting it rip.”
No. 7 Ole Miss arrives at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday night, 6:30 Central on ABC. Manning gets to prove that or he does not.
How Bad the Slump Actually Is
Through six games Manning has completed 106 of 166 passes for 1,295 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions. He has been sacked 17 times and has no rushing touchdowns on 49 carries. His ESPN QBR sits at 59.3. At the same point last season it was 94.5.
The turnover column tells it fastest. Six games into 2025 he had 11 total touchdowns and zero turnovers. Six games into 2026 he has six turnovers, and two of them decided games. His second interception against Oklahoma set up the winning field goal, and he fumbled on a sack with 1:58 left against Florida to end that one.
Against the Gators he threw for 173 yards, 62 of which came on one desperation ball to Emmett Mosley V on fourth down. Midway through the fourth quarter he had 97 passing yards and negative five air yards, against a defense ranked 131st nationally against the pass.
He was honest about it on Monday. “I haven’t put good film on tape for the last five weeks, and I’m going to be better,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been a little too hesitant, to be quite honest.”
It Is Not All Him
Texas ranks 64th nationally in scoring at 30.2 points a game, 92nd in total yards, 104th in yards per play and 102nd in rushing. Its three-and-out rate of 34.3 percent is the worst in the SEC. The Longhorns have scored more than three touchdowns once all season and have not scored a third-quarter touchdown in five straight games.
Dane Brugler of The Athletic put it plainly: Texas has more of an offensive problem than a quarterback problem. Steve Sarkisian calls the plays and has no intention of stopping. Asked on Oct. 10, after the Oklahoma loss, whether he would reconsider his role as play-caller, he said: “Not a chance.”
About the Benching Talk
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported this week that Texas would increase backup KJ Lacey’s first-team practice reps and that Lacey could play against Ole Miss. Sarkisian disputed that on Thursday, saying Lacey was not getting more first-team work than he normally would.
So separate the reporting from the noise. Manning is starting Saturday. The program has not said a benching is under consideration, beyond Sarkisian’s comment after the Florida loss that everything would be evaluated. Lacey is a sophomore who has thrown eight passes this season and last appeared on Sept. 19.
“I would use the word edgy, and I like it,” Sarkisian said of Manning on Thursday. “Somebody texted me today that we lost the aw shucks kid, you know, and we’ve created something else. We created this. We did. All of us. Y’all included. At some point, he’s gotta fight back.”
The Spot
Texas is 4-2 and 1-2 in the SEC after losing back-to-back games by identical 27-24 scores, to Oklahoma in Dallas and then at home to Florida. Both opponents were unranked. It is the program’s first consecutive regular-season losses since 2021, and the Longhorns dropped from seventh to 19th in the AP poll.
Ole Miss is 5-1 and 3-1 under Pete Golding, who took the job when Lane Kiffin left for LSU last November. Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, a former Division II transfer, threw three touchdowns and ran for another in a 31-3 win over Missouri. The Rebels rank 108th in total defense, the one encouraging number on Texas’s side of the page.
Texas opened as a 9.5-point favorite and is now around 3.5. That move is almost entirely about Colin Simmons, ruled out Thursday with a high right ankle sprain. He leads the country with 10.5 sacks, which happens to be 10.5 of Texas’s 19 as a team. Richard Wesley, his top backup, is also out.
Manning will have to win this one by throwing it, which is conveniently what he said he intended to do.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
