Nick Saban says expectations on Arch Manning created ‘anxiety,’ hurt his development
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Nick Saban knows a thing or two about pressure, having been a head coach in the pressure-cooker that is the SEC and at programs like Alabama and LSU.
Saban came out of all that pressure pretty OK, winning 7 national titles, 6 of them at Alabama and another 1 at LSU before he got to Tuscaloosa. Now, Saban is an ESPN college football analyst, so he’s safely out of that pressure-cooker. These days, he looks at pressure from a different angle, and he knows that intense pressure that’s been heaped on Texas quarterback Arch Manning, who took over the starting job in Austin this season and so far is struggling.
Manning had a hard time in the season opener at Ohio State, as Texas lost 14-7, and although the 8th-ranked Longhorns have won their past 2 home games to get to 2-1, Manning isn’t exactly setting the world on fire. He’s thrown for 579 yards so far with 6 touchdown passes and 3 interceptions, and his completion percentage through 3 games sits at just 55.3.
Saban was on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday and spoke about what Manning is going through amid all of that scrutiny.
“Sometimes, creating these expectations and nobody has created greater expectations for anybody than what we’ve all created for Arch Manning,” Nick Saban said. “I think that creates a lot of anxiety with players, and I think that anxiety hurts their development. They need to focus on development. We need consistent ways to try to develop and improve. We’re not giving these guys the opportunity now before the expectations get greater than what they’ve developed to.”
Here is the full clip of Saban’s take on Manning:
Manning will get his next crack at dealing with the pressure on Saturday night when Texas hosts Sam Houston at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
