A change in circumstances didn't stop Arch Manning from cracking jokes around the Texas football facility. He still religiously dapped up his teammates, wideout Ryan Wingo said. He didn't shut down socially because of what lay ahead.

In preparing for his first collegiate start, Arch Manning spent the week being Arch Manning. His job changed — for one week, at least, as he replaced the injured Quinn Ewers as the Longhorns' starting quarterback.

His demeanor, tellingly, did not, even when his task was complete.

"The games feel long," Manning joked after playing three full quarters for the first time in his career in a 51-3 Texas win Saturday over Louisiana-Monroe at Royal-Memorial Stadium.

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Levity and humor, Manning's teammates say, form a big part of his personality. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said he plays best when he keeps things light.

The weight of expectation, though, was heavy. Especially after Manning lit up UTSA in Week 3, taking over for Ewers in the first half.

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According to the Longhorns, Manning, succeeded in insulating himself from the frenzy.

"Arch is the guy that leads by example," running back Jaydon Blue said, when asked how Manning handled this week. "He don't talk a lot. He just comes in and goes to work. ... People know that he's a leader by the way he works."

The preparatory work didn't differ much from how Manning usually tackles the week.

The redshirt freshman tries to approach each game as if he were the starter, he said. The only difference was that last week there was no need to pretend.

"He did a great job when it came to protections and RPOs, just kind of communicated with me what he sees, asking questions over what calls I would make," Texas center Jake Majors said. "So he was very active in that, and just a lot of confidence in him and the way he practices. He did a good job this week."

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Manning managed the first-team offense in practice. But because the Longhorns take a rotational approach to their practice reps, he still got work in with Wingo, a true freshman wideout.

Wingo's size and athleticism have him burgeoning into a daunting downfield threat. Manning has never met a deep shot he didn't like. They pair like peanut butter and jelly.

Forty-two of Manning's 258 passing yards went to Wingo. So did one of his two touchdowns. Manning also threw a pair of interceptions, one resulting from a bad decision under pressure and another from a fastball fired off the hands of Blue and into the hands of a defender.

"We went into the game plan that we felt like we had to be a little bit aggressive with the style of play that we were getting," Sarkisian said. "He took his shots. We hit them, and we missed a couple. ...When you get into that mode a little bit, sometimes you can start to get a little bit greedy. That's a challenging thing, especially a guy making his first career start, because you feel like you're just hitting them, and you want to keep hitting those things."

Those are the lessons to be learned as Manning goes along, honing what is clearly elite arm talent paired with plus athleticism.

[ GOLDEN: Texas proved it's ready for SEC play with dominant romp through nonconference slate ]

But the Longhorns learned a big lesson last week before Manning ever took the field Saturday.

The circus — loud and distracting though it may be — won't keep Arch Manning from being Arch Manning.

"I try to prepare every week like I'm the starter," Manning said. "Obviously it was different this week just because I took all the ones' reps, got to do all the walk-throughs and such. But just kind of kept it the same like I've been doing."

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: What Arch Manning taught Texas football team before his ULM debut