Finebaum says Arch Manning ‘saved’ Texas football HC Steve Sarkisian

The biggest news of the offseason arrived for second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program last week with the commitment from the elite five-star Isidore Newman quarterback Arch Manning. Texas got the building block in the 2023 recruiting class that they were looking for all along in Arch.

And the shockwave that has taken place on the recruiting trail since Arch committed to the Longhorns, specifically back on June 23, is nothing short of incredible. Texas now leads the country with five-star commits in the 2023 class, sitting at three. What’s so incredible about that, though, is the fact that Texas has landed all three of those five-star commits in the 2023 class in the span of less than a week.

Moreover, landing a commitment from Arch has wound up in Sark and his staff getting a ton of praise for the work they’ve done of late on the recruiting trail. That has also seen various recruits and media personalities putting more trust in the job that Sark is doing as the Texas head coach, despite the disappointing result from the 2021 season.

But there still appears to be some skepticism as to what lies ahead for Sark and the Longhorns, even after landing Arch in the 2023 class.

Paul Finebaum implies Arch Manning saves Texas football HC Steve Sarkisian from the hot seat early this fall

Paul Finebaum of the “Paul Finebaum Show” gave his thoughts on Sark’s job status after landing a commitment from Arch in an interview with Awful Announcing on June 29. Finebaum noted that there is a good amount of pressure that is off Sark’s shoulders this fall after landing Arch.

That might seem obvious, but it’s also worth taking into account that Finebaum felt that Sark would be in a very shaky position with a ton to prove on the field this fall if not for nabbing Arch in the 2023 class. He summed this up by saying that Arch’s commitment to Sark and Texas has “saved him for the time being”, in reference to the head coach’s hot seat.

Finebaum is clearly critical of the job that Sark did last season, which is valid. But there is a lack of patience to some degree on Finebaum’s part to imply that Sark would be under a tremendous amount of pressure right away this fall if not for landing Arch this summer.

Sark still has the opportunity to improve a good bit in his second year at the helm as Texas’ head coach. In my personal opinion, the jury is out on the job status of Sark at least until the thick of the Big 12 slate this coming season.