Texas QB Arch Manning shows 'freakishly' fast speed in run his uncles could never pull off

In the lead-up to the 2023 football season, Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian shared an interesting tidbit about how fast then-freshman quarterback Arch Manning could run.

"I think he hit 20 miles an hour (in a scrimmage), which was pretty impressive," Sarkisian said.

As most know, Manning comes from a family that has produced NFL greats at the quarterback position. But it isn't like Manning's uncles, Peyton and Eli, were known for their speed.

During Saturday's 56-7 win over UTSA at Royal-Memorial Stadium, Manning backed up Sarkisian's words from a year ago. Three plays after he replaced an injured Quinn Ewers, Manning read the UTSA defense and decided to keep the football instead of handing it off to Quintrevion Wisner. After making a UTSA defender miss, Manning outran a group of Roadrunners for a 67-yard touchdown.

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According to Reel Analytics, Manning hit a top speed of 20.7 miles per hour on the run.

"When adrenaline kicks in, it helps you run a little bit faster," Manning said. "But I credit that to Torre Becton, our head weight coach, he runs our tails off in the summer, so I think I've gotten a little bit faster since I've gotten on campus."

Over the past 60 years, Manning's run has been topped by jjust two Texas quarterbacks. On Sept. 28, 1985, Bret Stafford scored on a 74-yard sprint at Stanford. Vince Young later used a pump fake to freeze the Oklahoma State defense on an 80-yard touchdown run Oct. 29, 2005 during UT's run to a national championship.

So that's where Manning stands among the past 60 years of Texas quarterbacks. But what about the past 60 years of Manning quarterbacks?

Over their combined 33 NFL seasons, neither Peyton or Eli Manning recorded a run of longer than 33 yards. Peyton Manning starred at Tennessee from 1994-97, but he wasn't Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1997 because of his fleet feet. From 2000-03 at Ole Miss, Eli Manning never picked up more than 15 yards on a run.

Arch Manning's grandfather, Archie, did average 5.7 yards per carry during his 13-year NFL career. While playing at Ole Miss in 1969, Archie Manning passed for 436 yards and rushed for 104 yards during the same game against Alabama.

"I think (Arch) got his grandpa's athleticism. I don't know if he got his uncles'," Sarkisian joked.

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After Saturday's game, a few of Manning's teammates said they weren't surprised to see the quarterback run wild against the Roadrunners. Senior defensive lineman Alfred Collins described Manning as "freakishly athletic and fast." Receiver Isaiah Bond said he'd seen Manning showcase his running abilities before.

It should be noted that Bond was a Georgia state champion in high school in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. He belongs to a position group that thinks highly-enough of its speed for DeAndre Moore Jr. to tell reporters that "we legitimately have two 4x1 teams in our receiver room."

So, can Manning run with the Texas receivers?

"That's a little too far, but he got some wheels," Bond said.

Over his three years at Texas, Ewers has shown that he's capable of running. But his longest run has been a 30-yard score against Kansas in 2023, and Ewers' top-end speed has never been a topic of conversation.

Will Texas open up its playbook and call for more quarterback runs if Manning remains in the huddle as Ewers recovers from an oblique strain? Sarkisian wasn't ready to commit to that just yet.

"It's not something that we've done a ton of here," Sarkisian said. "We did a little bit back in the day with Hudson when we had him. To have that at our disposal, sometimes that can keep people a little bit more honest. But we're never going to major in that. That's not who we are philosophically as an offense, but we like to have it in our back pocket to keep things honest. We'll probably just kind of stay the course with that."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football QB Arch Manning made family history with run