Trinidad Chambliss Beat Out Arch Manning for Preseason All-SEC Quarterback

Media covering SEC media days voted Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss onto the preseason All-SEC first team Friday. Arch Manning landed on the second team, and Georgia’s Gunner Stockton earned third-team honors.

Chambliss completed 66.1 percent of his throws last season for an SEC-best 3,937 yards with 22 touchdowns and three interceptions, ran for 527 more yards and eight scores, and ranked second nationally with 4,464 yards. He finished eighth in the Heisman voting. Manning threw for 3,163 yards with 26 touchdowns and seven interceptions while Texas went 10-3.

Sarkisian defended his quarterback in Tampa

Steve Sarkisian closed media days Thursday afternoon and spent part of it answering for Manning. “Arch Manning a year ago wasn’t on social media or on television saying I’m going to be the first pick of the draft,” Sarkisian said. “He wasn’t on television saying I’m going to win the Heisman Trophy. All he did was work really hard. All he did was try to be the best teammate he can be.”

Texas lost to Ohio State in the opener and at Florida in September, then won seven of its last eight. Sarkisian turned on the people who set the expectations. “Those same people that were saying that about him wanted to criticize and demean him almost for letting them down because he didn’t live up to what they thought he was going to be,” he said. “What he got put through probably would have melted or destroyed 99 percent of people in his shoes.”

Manning kept his own answers short. Ohio State visits Austin on September 12, and he told reporters he has thought about the rematch. “I don’t want to repeat that game,” Manning said. A year ago, the same voters made him the third-team preseason quarterback, behind LaNorris Sellers and Garrett Nussmeier.

Sarkisian expects a different season. “I think right now he’s a very dangerous player because he learned a lot from last season, and he is surrounded by some good players,” he said. “I think that he’s a guy that’s poised for a heck of a season.” Texas missed the College Football Playoff last year for the first time in three seasons.

The Preseason All-SEC Pick Who Sued to Play

Chambliss won two Division II national titles at Ferris State, entered the portal in April 2025 and reached Ole Miss after spring practice ended. He backed up Austin Simmons until Simmons got hurt at Kentucky in Week 3, then started the rest of the way. He threw for 362 yards against Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Ole Miss won 13 games, a program record, and finished No. 3 in the AP poll, its best since 1962.

The NCAA denied him a sixth year twice. Chambliss sued in Mississippi state court and won a preliminary injunction on Feb. 12 over a season he missed at Ferris State, one of a run of cases reshaping what schools owe their players. The NCAA appealed in a 658-page filing to the state’s highest court.

“I always had confidence in me being back here, me being the quarterback at Ole Miss,” Chambliss said in April. “My case was valid. It was the truth, all that. So, my confidence never went down or up. It was always pretty high.”

Voters placed him on the second team when the final ballots were cast last December, behind quarterbacks who have since moved on. He took SEC Newcomer of the Year and the Conerly Trophy. Running back Kewan Lacy and defensive lineman Will Echoles joined him on the preseason All-SEC first team this week.

The same ballots rate the two teams nowhere near each other. Georgia drew 88 of 164 votes to reach the SEC championship game, Texas took 57, and Ole Miss got six and will travel to Austin later this season. Voters have missed plenty before, hitting on the preseason champions only 10 times since 1992.