Josh Pate on Arch Manning as Texas starter: 'He is on thin ice'

Following back-to-back losses for the Texas Longhorns, now ranked No. 19 in the AP Poll, major questions have begun to roll out about the future of quarterback Arch Manning. Manning has been massively disappointing in his second season as the Longhorns’ starter, and has given up a costly turnover late in the fourth quarter of both losses. While he was tabbed a preseason Heisman favorite, along with the early favorite to go No. 1 overall in the 2027 NFL Draft, Manning has surpassed the 250-plus passing yard mark just twice this season. Through six games, Manning boasts just 1,295 passing yards and 11 touchdowns with six turnovers (five interceptions and a fumble). That just hasn’t been good enough for a program with expectations of returning to the College Football Playoff. $19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage With a home loss to No. 7 Ole Miss this weekend, Texas would suffer its first three-game losing streak since it lost six games in a row in 2021. That would almost certainly take the program out of CFP contention before the calendar flips to November. That result would almost certainly be seen as unacceptable by fans and everyone associated with the program. Josh Pate places Arch Manning ‘on thin ice’ as starter On Thursday’s episode of Get Up, Josh Pate was asked whether or not Saturday’s game against the Rebels could be Manning’s last start at Texas. While dancing around the question a bit, Pate did claim that the third-generation quarterback is ‘on thin ice’. “I feel weird even talking like that, but the answer might be yes. The answer is, he is on thin ice,” Pate said. “Even Steve Sarkisian has had to sort of acknowledge that they’re giving K.J. Lacey some first team reps, but then again, he always takes first team reps. I trust the reporting around that program that you’re probably on thin ice and needing to make a move there. You mentioned the optimum phrase there… bounce back. Wasn’t that last week too, though? Last week, against a pass defense in the 100s in the Florida Gators. “That was the perfect bounce back. I want to say they had like five total passes completed beyond the line of scrimmage. That was the opportunity. Ole Miss comes in this week and here’s the difference between last week and this week; you can get beat this week, but they may make you trade points to keep up with them. Florida last week took some assistance on your end. You can play good and Trinidad Chambliss can beat you. Again, without a good running game, this falls on the shoulders of Arch Manning.” While Manning heads into Saturday’s game with back-to-back disappointing performances, the aforementioned Chambliss is playing like one of the best quarterbacks of the country. Across his past two games (Vanderbilt and No. 13 Missouri), Chambliss has completed 40/66 passes for 454 yards and six touchdowns with one interception. He’s also rushed for another two scores, bringing his two-game total to eight.