Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning was the talk of the college football world earlier in the season after getting his moment to shine when starting quarterback Quinn Ewers went down with an injury.
Ewers has since gotten healthy and returned to the starting job, although the senior has looked shaky at points. So shaky in fact, that he was benched for Manning briefly in the first half of the Longhorns’ loss to the Georgia Bulldogs before returning to the field in the second half.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian explained the decision afterward.
“I felt Quinn was a little uneasy, and I just felt like giving him a chance to kind of step back, regroup,” Sarkisian said, according to The Mirror.
“I didn’t know if we get a series or two with Arch [Manning], depending on how much time was remaining in the half on the clock. So we just told Quinn, ‘Hey, we’re gonna go with Arch here, Give you a chance to get into the locker room. Let’s regroup and then come back out in the second half.
“At the end of the day, Quinn’s our starter. I think we’ve got to do a better job around him. I think he would tell you he could play better, but we’ve got to coach better, everybody’s got to be better for our offensive football team to perform better.”
Sarkisian isn’t the only prominent figure in college football to speak on the situation. Colorado Buffaloes star quarterback, a likely first-round pick in the upcoming NFL draft, has given his two cents on things as well.
“I mean, Arch is still young. He has a lot of time to grow and succeed, I would say,” Sanders said.
“I think for Quinn, the only difference was that they were trying to change it up a little bit to spark something, but I feel like it was going to go back to Quinn anyway.
“But I think it’s tough putting Arch in this situation. Especially when momentum isn’t on your side. It’s really hard to ask a freshman player to do that.”
It’s a brutal message to send to the young quarterback for many reasons. For starters, Arch is a sophomore, not a freshman, meaning Sanders likely doesn’t even respect Arch enough to be bothered with his class status. Secondly, considering everything Arch accomplished on the field it wasn’t altogether surprising to see Texas turn to him, so it wasn’t that “tough” for him like Sanders implied.
Things will be especially interesting in this saga if Manning and Sanders go on to play each other in the new-look 12-team playoff this winter.
