Texas fans will love what Steve Sarkisian said about the Longhorns' new RB duo

All eyes were on Texas football today as multiple Longhorns participated in the team's pro day in front of scouts from all 32 NFL teams. Aside from fielding questions about the event and the players participating in it, Steve Sarkisian discussed spring practice and how things have been going so far.

There were two pretty intriguing things that Sark talked about today, the first one having to do with new running backs Raleek Brown and Hollywood Smothers.

When asked about Brown and Smothers today, Sarkisian confirmed what he hopes to see from the ball-carriers this season:

“The ability to make a guy miss in tight quarters… in the open field is something we had the luxury of the first few years here. We were very fortunate to have that aspect of our team the first four years here that maybe we just didn’t have a year ago.”

He couldn't be more spot-on with this explanation. C.J. Baxter and Tre Wisner both could make defenders miss, but they didn't do it enough for some reason. Both Brown and Smothers have the potential to be electric playmakers in Steve Sarkisian's offense in 2026, and it's going to be great to see them both on the field during the Spring Game next month.

The other topic that was attention-grabbing involved Arch Manning and his rehab progress after having surgery this offseason:

“The progress has been… on par with where he should be. He was throwing the ball today. He threw it really well.”

This is obviously excellent news, and the type of thing that all Longhorns fans were hoping to hear following his procedure. Manning's been throwing for a while now, but the coaching staff is doing everything they can to make sure that they're not rushing him back to practice too early. It could still be a while before we see him taking live-action snaps, which means K.J. Lacey and Dia Bell have an excellent opportunity to continue growing and developing early on in the year.