AUSTIN (KXAN) — It appears Archie Manning spoke out of turn when discussing his grandson’s future.
Texas sophomore quarterback Arch Manning spoke with reporters Tuesday and followed up on his grandpa’s comments that appeared in Texas Monthly, saying he would “still be at Texas” after this season.
“I don’t know where he got that from,” Arch said. “He texted me and apologized about that. I’m really just taking it day by day right now.”
There has been all kinds of hype, speculation and conjecture about Manning and his potential future leading up to his first season as Texas’ starting quarterback, especially if he has a successful season and leads the Longhorns to a national championship. Texas is ranked at the top of both major polls in the preseason, and many have already anointed him as the Heisman Trophy winner and a first-team All-American.
None of that matters to him.
“I don’t even know how they get those opinions,” he said. “We do a really good job at keeping the main thing, the main thing, and try to get better every day to go win some games.”
Like his Super Bowl-winning uncles Peyton and Eli Manning, Arch is one of his own worst critics. It’s a formula that works for not only quarterbacks, but for star athletes in general, to never be satisfied with an outcome, good or bad. He’s always trying to find a way to improve, even if the previous play ended with a touchdown. He said he’s not impressed with his first fall camp as the starter.
“It’s funny, I didn’t have a great training camp at the first part,” he said. “It’s gotten better, but it was a bit rocky at first, I can tell you that.”
A lot of fan raised their eyebrows when Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian added journeyman transfer quarterback Matt Caldwell to the roster. He told reporters in the early portions of training camp that he needed a quarterback who had played a significant amount of college football, so that’s why a guy on his fourth school in five seasons is now wearing burnt orange.
Another role Sarkisian wants Caldwell to play is one of a mentor — someone for Manning and the rest of the young quarterbacks to provide feedback and use his experience to help shepherd them. Caldwell began his career at Jacksonville State, then transferred to Gardner-Webb before playing at Troy last season, and Manning asks for his advice all the time.
“It’s good for me to pick his brain,” he said. “He has been around a lot of football with different coaches, and he’s seen different defenses.”
When he makes his third career start inside Ohio Stadium on Aug. 30 against the defending national champions Ohio State Buckeyes, the quarterback on the other side will make his first career start. Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day named sophomore Julian Sayin, a 5-star recruit like Manning, the starting quarterback this week. It presents an interesting dichotomy between teams with highly-regarded and mature defenses coming into the season trying to stop two talented quarterbacks who represent the future of college football.
Manning said he’s been thinking about Ohio State’s defense a lot throughout training camp, and even though his grandpa may have said a little too much previously, Manning said there’s always one thing that his grandpa nails.
“He ends every call with, ‘Get down or get out of bounds.”