So far, I’ve been all about pumping the brakes on all things Arch Manning.

The ultimate football legacy has had a quiet Texas career. Perhaps fittingly, his most headline-worthy moment so far was his decision to opt out of being in the new EA Sports college football video game (a rare misstep in my eyes, but to each their own). Last season, he was a third-string quarterback.

In the spring game last April, Maalik Murphy was the best quarterback on the field, which solidified his spot as Quinn Ewers’ backup. No worries. Despite what many speculated about Manning’s career outlook as it related to Ewers’ starting status, I didn’t see it as a negative at all that the post-spring takeaway was that the decorated 5-star freshman was staring at a redshirt season.

Now, though, things have changed.

He’s not QB1 entering Year 2, but Manning’s role is significant as Ewers’ understudy. That’s why it’s fair to expect progress from him Saturday in Texas’ spring game.

Steve Sarkisian set the stage for that. He called Manning’s scrimmage showing over the weekend “terrific” and added that he had his best practice to date on Tuesday.

“I thought he did a really good job of stepping up in the pocket, keeping his eyes down the field, and delivering the ball under some duress very accurately,” Sarkisian told the media on Tuesday (H/T FanNation).

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Good. That feels similar to what was said about Murphy last year in Texas’ spring game. Remember, Murphy was a redshirt freshman who was trying to fend off the younger Manning. It showed. The guy who didn’t play a snap in 2022 looked ready to lead the Longhorns. Yeah, it was only a spring game, but that turned out to be a preamble for his all-important impact relieving the injured Ewers for 2 games. That included a blowout win against BYU and an overtime victory to fend off reigning Big 12 champs Kansas State.

Most important, Murphy kept Texas’ Playoff hopes alive. He didn’t play at an All-American level, but he played well enough to keep everything in front of the Longhorns in a pivotal season. Murphy also played well enough to get the opportunity to enter the portal and have a legitimate market, which landed him at Duke.

Texas fans will always be grateful that Murphy prepared like he was the starter. They want to see that Manning also has taken that approach.

Ewers will return as 1 of the 5 best quarterbacks in the sport, but he missed multiple games in each of his first 2 seasons as Texas’ starter. There’s a world in which Manning suddenly becomes the most important player for Texas keeping national title hopes alive.

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Sure, the margin for error is greater in the 12-team Playoff than last year when Murphy took over for a team without any more losses to give, but think about this: If Texas loses that game in Ann Arbor against a new-look Michigan team and Ewers gets hurt late in September in a win against Mississippi State, Oklahoma and Georgia await. You’d like to think an offensive line with 4 returning starters will protect Manning and that Sarkisian would put him in favorable spots, but it still would be up to Manning to seize that moment in high-pressure situations.

Saturday’s spring game won’t be a high-pressure situation, despite the inevitable fan buzz whenever he’s on the field. Manning won’t have to worry about a blindside blitzer getting a clean hit on him between the numbers, so take it for what it is. More important will be how he continues to do the things that Sarkisian praised him for. That is, “stepping up in the pocket, keeping his eyes down the field and delivering the ball under some duress very accurately.”

That’s an expectation. Better yet, that’s a fair expectation.

The expectation won’t be Manning looking every bit as polished as Ewers. Again, we’re comparing a guy with 5 career FBS pass attempts to a guy who’s a top-5 returning starting quarterback in the sport. Even if Manning goes blow for blow with Ewers and it turns into a fun back-and-forth with the former 5-star quarterbacks, I’d still say to pump the breaks on the hype train. At least until we see Manning do what Murphy did in last fall, not just in the spring game.

But no matter how things play out for Manning on Saturday, this year will be louder than last. That’s inevitable. Even if Ewers stays healthy for a Texas team that figures to earn its best preseason AP Poll ranking since the Mack Brown era, we’ll see Manning get garbage time reps that’ll prompt plenty of takeaways. That won’t be avoided in Year 2.

A whole lot more gas than brakes awaits Manning.