AUSTIN, Texas — Arch Manning arrived in rather modest style.

The Texas team buses pulled up to Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on time at 4:40 p.m. Saturday. Manning stepped out and walked up San Jacinto Boulevard in a navy suit, paired with a white shirt and a brown striped tie. On his shoulders was a black backpack and the modest weight of the hopes and dreams of Texas fans.

Unlike most of his Longhorn teammates, however, Manning wasn’t wearing headphones. During the team’s traditional Stadium Stampede walk to the stadium, where fans cheered as they held their phones and horns aloft, the young quarterback took it all in.

“You need some time to appreciate the opportunity,” Manning said later. “I’m blessed to be in this situation. I don’t take it for granted.”

The fifth-largest crowd in school history flocked to DKR to get a glimpse into the future of American football in Texas. An extended preview of how a five-star prospect with a legendary reputation will lead this program a year from now.

What those 102,850 saw during No. 1 Texas’ 51-3 blowout of UL Monroe on Saturday night was a little more reasonable than their wildest expectations. Manning’s performance in his first college start reminded everyone that he’s right on track, right where he needs to be in his developmental process.

The redshirt freshman played a lot like a redshirt freshman: great and not so great, with a healthy mix of highlights and useful lessons. He gave himself a C+ for the night after completing 15 of 29 passes for 258 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Manning may have the potential to be great in Steve Sarkisian’s offense, but he’s only played in five college games. Six and a half hours after he first stepped into the ballpark, he felt the difference.

“The games feel long when you’re in them most of the time,” Manning joked. “They’re a lot longer than high school. That was the most surprising thing.”

The Longhorns lost starting QB Quinn Ewers to an oblique injury last week against UTSA, allowing Manning to stun the college football world. He came off the bench, threw for five touchdowns and made everything look a little too easy. It was a stunning performance from a guy with 11 career pass attempts at the college level, a backup with plenty of fame but little film.

Manning was given the week-long QB1 spot while Ewers focused on his health. The surge of Longhorn fans wearing Manning’s No. 16 jersey was easy to see on campus Saturday afternoon. Authentic Ewers and Manning jerseys were being sold for $149.99 in the stadium’s team store. There were still plenty of Ewers jerseys on the racks three hours before kickoff, but Manning gear was long gone. The store produced another batch of his jerseys this week in anticipation of demand, but they were selling fast.

Brian and Jessica McCreary both wore jersey No. 16 as they waited for the team to arrive on Bevo Boulevard. They bought theirs last year. They also have Ewers jerseys at home. The couple wanted to see more of Manning, but Brian sees the bigger picture as clearly as the Texas head coach.

“If you know football,” he said, “you know Quinn is our quarterback.”

Ewers hated missing a game, but he remained optimistic on the Texas sideline. The 25-game starter, wearing his No. 3 jersey over a jacket, had an earpiece in his left ear to hear play calls and talked to Manning the entire time. But the assignment for the night wasn’t to coach him. Ewers had to let Manning relax.

“We talked about him trying to keep it light with Arch,” Sarkisian said. “Because when Arch keeps it light, he’s really, really good. We try not to let him get too, too focused.”

Manning needed that encouragement early. His opening drive ended abruptly when he forced a throw under pressure on second-and-4 that was intercepted. He knew he should have thrown it away. Rookie mistake. On the bench, left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. and center Jake Majors talked him down.

“It’s gonna happen, bro,” Banks told him. “Keep pushing.”

“Just be yourself,” Majors said.

“He sets the bar high for himself, and that’s good,” Banks said afterward, “so he can definitely have moments where he makes it really hard on himself.”

Sarkisian demands that next-play mentality to make his system work. The message in the week leading up to Manning’s first start: Don’t overanalyze, just execute. The game plan called for deep shots on ULM’s secondary. Manning hit plenty of them, picking up 210 of his passing yards on eight completions.

The tradeoff? “When you get in that mode, sometimes you can get a little greedy,” Sarkisian said. Ask Manning what throws he’d like to see back, and he can think of a few overthrows and underthrows in the second half that could have been checkdowns for easier completions.

“He was going to learn some lessons,” Sarkisian said, “and I think that was the most important thing tonight.”

It was never supposed to be a quarterback controversy. Sarkisian made sure to set the record straight on Thursday. It’s not just that Ewers is his quarterback. He sees Ewers leading a national title race, going to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony and proving himself as a top-five draft pick. All of those goals are still on the table.

You won’t hear many head coaches say this publicly, but it’s a testament to Sarkisian’s confidence. Colt McCoy, back in town to be inducted into the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor, has lived with those expectations.

The last quarterback to lead Texas to a national title game sees greatness in both. McCoy knows that Manning’s reps will ultimately benefit the entire team in the long run of a 12-team College Football Playoff and the deep run this team is trying to make. And the Longhorn legend knows better than most what it takes to carry that weight.

“There’s a lot of pressure playing quarterback at the University of Texas, a lot of expectations, everything that goes along with being the guy,” McCoy said. “For them, I would just say you have a great team around you.

“I mean, this team is built to win a championship. Just go out there, execute, stay focused and lean on each other.”