Texas QB Arch Manning 'dialed in' with the deep ball

This spring, redshirt freshman Texas football quarterback Arch Manning is getting accustomed to his new role as the backup behind redshirt junior Quinn Ewers. Last year, Arch backed up then-redshirt freshman quarterback Maalik Murphy in one of the most talented QB rooms in the entire country at Texas.

Texas football QB Arch Manning connecting deep with his wideouts to start spring ball this week

After Murphy left to take to the starting job at Duke via the transfer portal early this offseason, Arch is now the guy as the backup quarterback. He needs to be ready for anything to happen this fall to make sure he can handle those critical live-game reps leading the offense.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has emphasized the development not only on the practice field in individual and team drills, but also the leadership aspects of both Ewers and Manning this offseason.

"You can feel Year Three Quinn. You can feel Year Two Arch. Just kind of the operation of it. They’re both doing a really nice job. They’re both in a phase in their progression systematically but also maturity of players that have been in the program."

While many originally anticipated Arch to be Texas's starting quarterback entering the SEC in 2024, he can still benefit from developing for another year behind Ewers in the QB room. Not many elite quarterback talents get the opportunity to develop under a third-year starting quarterback in the same system with an offensive-minded coach such as Sarkisian.

Manning is also likely to see more live-game reps at quarterback this upcoming season than he did during his true freshman campaign last fall. And it looks like he's already proving capable of leading this offense given his business-like mentality and consistent performances in the first week of spring cmap this offseason.

Arch was one of those players that got down to work right away early in offseason workouts, and the results have shown with how he's looked early in spring ball.

Inside Texas reported on March 26 (paid content) that Arch and Ewers have often led the first and second-team offensive units in team drills to situational victories over the defense this spring. Ewers has great chemistry with many of the new talented wide receivers Texas has at the skill positions this year.

And Arch has started to expand his game and continued to improve his timing with his wideouts in team drills and simulated live-game situational drills.

One of the most encouraging parts of this report from IT was the fact that Arch has been "dialed in with the deep ball" early in spring practice. He specifically was connecting on many of his deep throws to his wideouts in this week's first spring practice on March 25.

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