Texas football team player Arch Manning walked out of Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium with six touchdowns on the stat sheet and a nagging feeling that it still was not good enough.
After shredding Arkansas for four passing scores plus a rushing and receiving TD in a 52-37 win, the Texas quarterback admitted he “left a lot out there” and wished he had been more precise, a perfectionist’s verdict on what was already one of the most explosive performances in Longhorns history.
Part of the night’s highlight reel was the trick-play touchdown that had the stadium buzzing and helped fuel the blowout. Steve Sarkisian said afterward that the staff had been sitting on that call for a while, waiting for the right moment.
He explained that they had installed the design weeks earlier, leaning on Parker Livingstone’s baseball background to let the wideout throw effectively on the move, and that it took time for him to get comfortable delivering that pass on the run, as noticed by On3.
Sarkisian also joked that Arch bailed Livingstone out with a tough grab in traffic, and that Parker now “owes him one” somewhere down the line, noting how much fun it is to see two close friends hit on a play like that in a big game.
The creativity fits what Texas has been under Sark: aggressive, willing to lean into misdirection and personnel versatility, and perfectly happy to let its young star quarterback be a receiver one snap and a surgeon from the pocket on the next. Yet Manning’s postgame comments show why the staff keeps pushing.
For all the fireworks, he is still obsessing over accuracy, missed reads, and drives that stalled, which is exactly the mentality Sarkisian wants as Texas tries to close the season with one more statement.
Any speculation that this kind of showcase might vault Sarkisian back onto the NFL radar has been firmly brushed aside. In a recent media availability, he flatly rejected rumors about leaving Austin, stressing that he has had no talks with pro teams, that his family is deeply rooted in Texas, and that he came to the program to win championships, not to use it as a stepping stone.
Between a quarterback chasing perfection and a head coach publicly planting his flag in Austin, the Longhorns are treating games like Arkansas, not as a destination.
