Arch Manning pointed the finger at himself as his coach criticized outside expectations as No. 1 Texas opened the season with a 14-7 loss at Ohio State on Saturday.
Manning completed 17 of 30 passes for 170 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
“Ultimately not good enough,” Manning said of his performance, sipping on an orange Gatorade in his postgame news conference. “Obviously, you don’t want to start off the season 0-1, and they’re a good team, but I thought we beat ourselves a lot and that starts with me. I’ve got to play better for us to win. I think I beat myself today.”
Manning was shaky from the start and had only 26 passing yards at halftime. He was stuffed at the goal line trying to score in the third quarter.
“We’ve gotta have those,” Manning said. “And I’ve gotta make more of a push because that was a big swing in the game.”
All in all, he came up short in his debut as the full-time starter for the Longhorns, but didn’t want to talk about injured receivers or excessive turnover on the offensive line from the 2024 College Football Playoff version of Texas.
As Manning said he hoped he would be able to look back at Saturday’s loss as his worst performance of the season, head coach Steve Sarkisian was quick to remind Manning and Texas not to put too much stock in the first chapter of what the Longhorns expect to be a memorable season.
“For Arch, the expectations were out of control on the outside,” he said. “But I’d say let’s finish the book before we judge it. This is one chapter, and we’ve got a long season to go play.”
