That headline’s probably not the news Arkansas fans wanted to hear.
The Manning family has had a habit of sticking around college campuses just long enough to leave the Razorbacks shaking their heads. That goes all the way back to Archie Manning’s playing days at Ole Miss.
Steve Sarkisian’s recent comments about a potential fifth season for Arch Manning suggest the family pattern isn’t done yet.
Texas’s coach said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if Manning passed up the 2027 draft. He floated the idea of Manning playing out a fifth season in Austin instead of leaving early.
For most prospects, that kind of comment would seem strange. For a Manning, it tracks with everything this family has done for more than 50 years. A long stretch of that history has come directly at Arkansas’s expense.
Start with Archie. The Razorbacks suffered a deflating 15-14 loss to Texas in the Big Shootout on Dec. 6, 1969. Many believed that game decided the national championship that season.
Just weeks later, Arkansas turned around and ran into Archie Manning in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 1970. Manning passed for 273 yards and a touchdown while adding another score on the ground, and Ole Miss held off a late Arkansas rally for a 27-22 win in New Orleans.
Manning was named the game’s MVP. It was a brutal one-two punch for Arkansas fans who’d already watched their national title hopes disappear weeks earlier.
Archie went on to finish his full college career at Ole Miss. The Saints made him the No. 2 overall pick in the 1971 draft.
That set the tone for what was coming from the next generation. Peyton Manning graduated from Tennessee in three years with Phi Beta Kappa honors.
He still chose to stay for a fourth season instead of turning pro early, a decision he’s since called the best one he ever made.
He’s talked about not wanting to reach his late 40s wondering what a senior year in Knoxville would have felt like. The friendships and college experience meant more to him than rushing the league.
Arkansas got the short end of that extended stay every single time. The Razorbacks lost to Tennessee in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997, Peyton’s entire run as a starter. Arkansas finished winless against him across four tries.
Eli caused his own share of headaches in Oxford
Eli Manning followed an almost identical script at Ole Miss. In some ways, he gave Arkansas an even longer runway to deal with him.
He redshirted his first year on campus in 1999. He then played four seasons of eligibility after that, putting five total years in Oxford before he ever turned pro.
Eli has said he loved every part of that stretch. He pointed to the friendships, the coaching staff and the chance to be a senior captain as reasons he never considered leaving early.
He closed his career with a Cotton Bowl win over Oklahoma State that he still counts among his favorite football memories.
Like his older brother, Eli became a No. 1 overall pick once his college eligibility ran out. He was taken by the San Diego Chargers before a draft-day trade sent him to the New York Giants.
Arkansas got a front-row seat for one of the wildest games in college football history because of that extended stay. The 2001 meeting between the Razorbacks and Rebels in Oxford went seven overtime periods, an NCAA record at the time. It finally ended on a failed two-point conversion attempt by Eli.
Arkansas survived that marathon, but the rest of the series during Eli’s years brought its own frustration for Hogs fans. They had to face him year after year instead of getting a quick exit to the NFL.
Archie’s foundation runs deeper than just his own playing days
None of this is really a coincidence. Archie set a family standard during his own three years as Ole Miss’s starter. He finished in the top five of Heisman voting twice.
One of the earliest nationally televised primetime games against Alabama had had Archie making more headlines. All that was before the NFL ever entered the picture.
He became a College Football Hall of Famer in Oxford first and a longtime NFL quarterback second. That order, finishing the college chapter before opening the professional one, has carried straight through to his sons and now to his grandson.
Arch already gave Arkansas a taste of what extra seasons might look like
If Hogs fans needed a reminder of what a fully developed Manning can do to their defense, they got one in November.
Manning’s only career start against Arkansas came at Royal-Memorial Stadium in Austin on Nov. 22, 2025.
He turned in arguably the best individual performance of his college career.
Manning completed 18 of 30 passes for a career-high 389 yards and four touchdowns. He added a 3-yard rushing score in the third quarter. He also caught a 4-yard touchdown on a reverse trick play in the second quarter.
The receiving score made him the first Texas quarterback in program history to record a passing, rushing and receiving touchdown in the same game.
Texas needed every bit of it in a 52-37 win that kept the Longhorns alive in the College Football Playoff conversation.
Arkansas actually trailed by just four points at halftime before the do-everything Manning pulled away in the second half. The loss extended what became a nine-game losing streak for a Razorback team that fired its head coach midseason.
It was a small but telling preview of what Arch could keep doing to Arkansas and everyone else on the schedule. That’s especially true if he sticks around Austin the way his uncles stuck around Knoxville and Oxford.
Arch already showed signs of following the same path
Arch has already shown he’s willing to operate on his own clock rather than the league’s. He pushed back his own decision once already, announcing last December that he’d return to Texas for his junior season.
That came even though he was draft-eligible at the time. That choice put him directly in line with how his uncles handled the same decision at similar points in their careers.
He’s also followed a version of Eli’s path before he ever threw a competitive pass at Texas. He appeared in just two games as a true freshman in 2023. He then worked through a redshirt freshman season in 2024 that included only two starts.
Manning’s own words back up the family pattern. He developed steadily down the stretch of the 2025 season. He said flatly there was no reason for him to leave Texas yet, adding that he still felt like he had a lot more football left to play at the college level.
Money isn’t the forcing mechanism it might be for most prospects, either. Manning already has real NIL earning power in Austin. The family name carries financial weight that exists independent of any NFL paycheck.
For most players, an early jump to the league is about securing life-changing money as fast as possible. Most college quarterbacks aren’t sitting on the kind of family resources that soften the urgency of a rookie contract.
For a Manning, that motivation simply doesn’t carry the same weight it does for almost anyone else stepping into the draft conversation.
Sarkisian made clear nothing is decided yet. How Texas performs this fall will factor heavily into Manning’s eventual call.
The family he comes from is one Arkansas fans know all too well. Given the long history Arkansas fans have already lived through with this name, nobody around Fayetteville should be surprised.
The Hogs may spend another year watching a Manning take his time before turning pro.
