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Arch Manning's moment has arrived. Will he help Texas contend for a national title this season?

ATLANTA — A few days ago, Arch Manning phoned his father, Cooper, with a question about his appearance here at SEC media days.

“Hey Dad,” Arch asked, “What am I wearing?”

And so, last weekend, as any dad would, Cooper flew to Austin, connected with an acquaintance in the clothing industry and the two of them put together the wardrobe ensemble that the 21-year-old Texas quarterback showed off on Tuesday during this media extravaganza — perhaps the unofficial public kickoff to Arch’s crowning as the Longhorns starter.

Cooper refers to the outfit as one befitting a “Southern gentleman” — a navy jacket over an orange-and-white striped shirt, matching striped tie, khaki slacks, a brown belt and, for a dash of a different color, a light blue pocket square and blue suede shoes.

Twinkling on his left lapel, a golden Longhorns pen.

“I don’t know that it’s really a suit,” Arch said with a smile.

The Arch Suit was born.

In the biggest media moment of his career — more than 1,000 reporters, radio personalities and TV journalists were in attendance — Arch, infamously an avoider of the spotlight, spun through this media carwash like a seasoned veteran of such events. He smiled, laughed, cracked jokes, even teased reporters and spoke not like the most highly billed first-year starter in the country but a humbled kid just play’n ball.

“Talk is cheap,” Arch said. “I gotta go prove it.”

That starts on Aug. 30, when Arch and the Longhorns play at defending national champion Ohio State. “Gonna be a fun one,” quipped Arch.

It’s been a long road here, real long, longer than maybe anyone expected, including him and his father. Not only was Arch one of the most highly billed high school quarterbacks ever, but he’s the latest member of what is arguably the greatest football family in the sport’s history: grandpa Archie, a former NFL quarterback and member of the College Football Hall of Fame; uncles Peyton and Eli, both Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks; and dad Cooper, himself a former college receiver before injuries derailed his career.

In 30 months in Austin, he’s started two games, attempted 95 passes and tossed nine touchdowns.

Finally, his day has arrived — well, six weeks from now.

“We've got a new quarterback, Arch Manning, in case you didn't know,” coach Steve Sarkisian said with a smile.

Maybe this will be worth the wait. But it wasn’t easy — no, not at all, especially for a kid who has started since his little league days.

It was so “tough,” Arch said, that he began as a freshman playing pickup basketball games to satisfy his “competitive fire.” In fact, he used to vent to teammates and staff members during those bench-warming days, including Paul Chryst, the former Wisconsin coach who served as a support staff member for Texas.

Arch says he spent an hour of two-hour film watching sessions with Chryst debriefing him on his latest qualms with not playing. He understood why he wasn’t playing — he “wasn’t ready” and was behind Quinn Ewers, he acknowledges — but that didn’t change the fact that he grew frustrated.

Did dad get frustrated too?

“I’ve always liked when things didn’t go perfectly for my children because I thought it builds character,” Cooper said in an interview with Yahoo Sports this week. “If they’re complaining about something either they are going to fix it themselves, overcome it or make an adjustment. Mom and dad coming to the rescue is only when it’s really bad. Let them deal and overcome.

“Even though some of the times being there have been understandably frustrating, we never discussed going anywhere else," Cooper continued. "Never. Because there was nowhere else he wanted to go.”

In many ways, Arch is like any other kid, his dad says. He attended college with other priorities than just football. He wanted to meet new people, experience new things and learn (they do still go to school — Arch is majoring in communications and leadership).

In an age of more player movement than ever, Arch stands as the outlier. He’s also taller, thicker, smarter and just more mature than the kid who enrolled in January of 2023.

“The player you’ll see this year is a much better version of the player you would have seen years before,” Cooper said. “While you don’t love it at the time, that’s part of the plan. It was always where can I go to be developed and become the best version of me. The level of patience in the world today isn’t what it used to be.”

Sitting for two years, while frustrating, taught him a ton. As a leader, Arch has learned to “come from a place of love” and “not just being a turd,” he said.

It’s been a weird ride to this point. He can remember walking to class as a freshman two years ago having to take photos with fellow students. Always the shy one, he’d phone his mom as a way to look busy.

“I hadn’t even played,” he said.

But after all of that, he’s finally made it, on full display at the SEC’s annual informal kickoff to the season.

Texas and SEC administrators served as Arch ushers, whisking him around the College Football Hall of Fame and Omni Hotel on Tuesday — a parade of media members following his every move. He shook hands with the ESPN TV personality Paul Finebaum, scribbled his autograph for an awaiting line of fans and had journalists jockeying for position around the stage that he graced.

“There’s been an Arch Manning sighting,” one reporter whispered to another as the curly haired Arch entered the main room.

At one point, he smiled toward an Austin reporter who he knows well, “You look good today,” Arch said to him as the room filled with laughter.

Archmania had consumed this place. And to think, at first, he had declined the invitation to attend media days, he said, “because cameras aren’t my favorite.”

What is? Outside of football, that answer is another sport: golf.

He even traveled to San Diego in May with three friends to watch a Padres game and hit the links. He’s around a 13 handicap, he says. “I can chip but can’t putt.”

But it’s the other sport that consumes his family and his life. In fact, aside from golf and school, Arch doesn’t focus on much outside of the football facility, his dad says. And that does include his clothes.

How could this New Orleans-bred boy not have a wardrobe for media day?

Well, he does now. And despite that ensemble drawing criticism from the social media world, Arch is seeing none of it. He deleted social media from his phone for the week — a bet he made with a friend for $20. He’s itching to get back on this Sunday.

Until then, he’ll be in the dark. Not that he cares.

After all, as Arch noted earlier, cameras aren’t his favorite. And, he says, “I’m not really too worried about what other people think.”

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