It’s the weekend of the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans where the Texas Longhorns and Washington Huskies will meet inside the Caesars Superdome for the opportunity to advance to the NCAA National Championship Game.
Though he won’t play, barring injury, Texas quarterback Arch Manning is back home in the city and ready to suit up in the same stadium where his grandfather Archie Manning played from 1971 to 1982. The younger Manning acknowledged the history made at the venue, but he doesn’t look back on his predecessor’s Saints career too fondly.
“My granddad, he’s my biggest role model. It’s cool being back where he played, where he ran around and got killed,” Manning told The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate’s Rod Walker.
Sacks were not officially tracked until 1982, but the good people at Pro Football Reference have done the work to find unofficial sack numbers all the way back to 1960. And their research found that the elder Manning set and broke the NFL record for sacks in a single season three times. He was sacked 40 times for a loss of 332 yards in 1971, 53 times for 347 lost yards in 1972, and a personal-high 49 times for 390 yards in 1975, before he lost the entire 1976 season to a shoulder injury.
Manning will continue as the backup to Quinn Ewers at Texas next season, unless Ewers makes a surprise decision to declare for the 2023 NFL draft following the playoffs. A local favorite who starred at Isidore Newman High School, Manning is patiently waiting for his opportunity at the college level. The son of Cooper Manning, he’s hoping to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and uncles Peyton and Eli to forge his own successful pro football career.
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