Coach Steve Sarkisian gave updates on his injured quarterback Quinn Ewers and an analysis of Arch Manning’s first start during his press conferences. The top-ranked Texas Longhorns will play their first SEC game this coming weekend against one and three Mississippi State. This comes after their blowout victory this past weekend over UL Monroe 51 to three.
Manning’s First Start
Top recruit Arch Manning made his first career start in that game for the injured Quinn Ewers. Manning was 15 of 29 for 258 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. Longhorn’s coach Steve Sarkisian felt they had to be aggressive downfield given UL Monroe’s style of play. After the game, he gave his initial critique of Manning’s performance.
“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. To be fair to him, maybe we should have found some other just kind of completions in there to keep his rhythm. I thought we kind of did that there at the end of the third quarter. You know, hit a slant. Hit a couple of the simpler type throws because I’d like that completion percentage to be a little higher than it was tonight.”
Sarkisian seemed pleased enough with the redshirt freshman’s performance. Manning did throw an interception on his first drive. But his coach was most impressed by the growth he’s seen in Manning over the last year.
“I don’t think the Arch we saw today in dealing with some of those negative plays was the same guy we saw a year ago at this time. He has grown a ton and that takes a lot of maturity to get that done. I think he’s got a really good guy to watch in Quinn because Quinn has evolved that way as well.”
Sarkisian doubled down on that analysis during his Monday press conference. He emphasized that Manning might want to take more check downs rather than risking deeper throws down the field.
“There’s probably four or five plays in there when he really grasps checking that ball down, the value in that check down, and maybe not having to force a couple of those throws. The impact that could have had, that’s the difference of completing 52 percent of your passes to 65 percent of your passes and then what that all looks like, so room for growth there.”
Ewers’ Injury Update
Sarkisian also gave an update on injured starting quarterback Quinn Ewers. Ewers missed last week’s game with an abdominal strain. The Texas coach broke down what he needed to see in order to consider starting his quarterback.
“He’s got to do enough to show me he can play,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got a game plan. Can he execute the game plan?”
Sarkisian emphasized that he will need to see how Ewers improves each day before deciding on his status. But his coach did say the junior quarterback participated in practice on Monday.
“Today was a good start. I was actually impressed with where he was today.”
Sarkisian seems unlikely to take any risks with Ewers for a team with National Championship aspirations.
“I want to make sure he’s healthy enough to play at a high level.”
This is big news for the Longhorns even if Ewers isn’t ready to play this weekend. Mississippi State got smoked by the struggling Florida Gators last weekend. Even Manning coming off his sub-par performance should have no issues beating the Bulldogs. Texas has a bye the following week, so Sarkisian can wait until he’s sure Ewers is closer to 100 percent. That would give Ewers almost three more weeks to heal before they face off against 21st-ranked Oklahoma and 2nd-ranked Georgia back-to-back weeks starting October 12th.
