Arch Manning struck a powerful pose. Texas saved season, in a dramatic way
Blake Toppmeyer, USA TODAYSun, October 25, 2026 at 3:43 AM UTC
AUSTIN, TX – Arch Manning ran into the end zone, crossed his arms across chest and let the swagger ooze from his pores as orange fireworks pierced the night sky behind him.
This is the image you’d get if you asked AI to create a portrait of a college quarterback posing like a total badass.
Except, this was real.
For one half, Manning looked spectacular.
Bad Arch got locked away somewhere. Archibald took over.
He put his boot into Mississippi’s chest.
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Sure as the day is long, though, Texas was always going to find a way to make this game tense, even after establishing a 21-point halftime lead on Ole Miss.
The first half became a mirage. A tease. The necessary climb before the inevitable Texas sputter.
Bad Arch broke loose in the third quarter. He brought all of bad Texas with him.
High drama, always, with this team.
Texas lacks a killer instinct, but make what we will of Bevo’s capriciousness, Texas will be a tough team to kill off. The talent still flows through this roster.
Archibald won this round. Good Texas did enough to offset bad Texas.
Texas is alive. It’s alive!
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After three turnovers, Manning scored untouched on a bootleg for the winning touchdown in this 34-27 takedown of No. 7 Ole Miss that gives No. 18 Texas a second signature victory to go with its two puzzling losses.
Manning outplayed Trinidad Chambliss. Who would’ve thought we could’ve ever said that after the past few weeks?
Manning did just enough, and the Texas run game and its defense took care of the rest.
“Whatever it takes," a smiling, joking, joyful Manning said afterward on ABC.
That’s the rub with Texas. It should be versatile enough that it’s not all on the quarterback’s shoulders.
"We were not perfect," coach Steve Sarkisian said, "but I thought we played hard. I thought we played with Texas fight."
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When bad Arch wasn’t turning the ball over, his alter ego Archibald served up a bundle of the type of heroics you’d expect from a former No. 1-ranked recruit with a famous surname.
Sarkisian predicted this week that we’d seen the last of the “Aw Shucks” flavor of Manning, and that would be replaced by an “edgy” Arch.
Edgy looked good on No. 16.
“It’s fun to watch,” Sarkisian told ABC of his quarterback’s first-half performance.
Manning emphatically signaled first down — the swagger on this one! — after a first-down scramble on 3rd-and-17. Two plays later, Manning dropped a beauty into Ryan Wingo’s mitts for a 50-yard touchdown.
We’d call that scramble and that touchdown toss Heisman moments, except that Manning’s erratic performances throughout first half of the season buried his chances for the award.
Texas lives dangerously. (Of course.) But, it endures against Ole Miss
Wherever this ends for Manning and Texas, they played better than they had in weeks, and kept a puzzling two-game losing streak from becoming what would have been a punishing three-game skid.
Instead, Ole Miss took another step down the plank toward playoff omission on what became another bloody-knuckled Saturday cage match of college football full of top-15 takedowns and topplings and in the case of Texas Tech, an embarrassing faceplant.
For the first time in his Ole Miss career, Chambliss looked the part of a Division II transfer throughout the first half. Will Muschamp threw everything and the kitchen sink at Chambliss, and it hit him square in the face, and his play-caller did little to help him.
In the halftime locker room, Chambliss must have remembered who the Heisman candidate was in this game.
He turned virtuoso in the third quarter, and the Rebels stampeded back, because of course they did. The Rebels strip-sacked Manning for a defensive score that started the rally. And after the Longhorns re-established a 10-point lead, they nearly gave it all away once more. Always a high-wire act with Texas, and the Rebels recovered a pinballing onside kick that gave them a chance to send this game to overtime.
"It's a dangerous way to live," Sarkisian said of a victory that came in spite of three turnovers and 121 Texas penalty yards.
And when Texas sealed the victory with an interception in the end zone, Manning found a teammate to hug, and more orange fireworks shot into the sky.
Good Texas and Archibald prevailed.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Arch Manning struck a powerful pose. Texas saved season, in a dramatic way
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