During Saturday’s showdown with the Georgia Bulldogs, Texas Longhorns star quarterback Arch Manning got a chance to prove that he should be the team’s starter over Quinn Ewers. But it sounds like the team is still going to stick with Ewers.
With Georgia leading 20-0 in the second quarter and starting quarterback Quinn Ewers struggling, Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian opted to insert Arch Manning into the game in place of Ewers, but it was not exactly a quick fix for the offense.
Arch Manning played two drives before halftime and he struggled, completing three of six passing attempts for just 19 yards, missing a couple of open receivers. While he did break a 21-yard run, he also took three sacks that cost the team 22 total yards.
After halftime, Texas went back to Ewers who led the team to 15 second-half points to make the game competitive once again, even though they still ultimately lost 30-15.
Following the game, Sarkisian announced a final decision on Arch Manning as he made it clear that Ewers will remain the starter and Manning will remain the backup moving forward.
“Quinn’s our starting quarterback,” Sarkisian said according to ESPN. “I appreciate the fact that we’re fortunate enough to have a backup like Arch that can come into the game and provide a spark in some sense, but at the end of the day, Quinn’s our starter.”
Sarkisian said that Ewers’ “eyes weren’t where they needed to be” during the first half, resulting in the decision to replace him with Manning and give him time to settle down.
It’s not clear whether or not Sarkisian would have inserted Ewers back into the game had Manning performed well to close the first half, but Manning did not play well enough to force that decision.
It was not a great game from Ewers, but Sarkisian is committed to him as the team’s starting quarterback.
“Quinn’s our starter, but I think we’ve got to do a better job around him,” Sarkisian said.
“I think he would tell you he can play better, but we’ve got to coach better. Everybody’s got to be better for our offensive football team to perform better.”
We’ll have to see how the Longhorns perform going forward.
[ESPN]
