The Texas Longhorns are heavy favorites to the national championship. However, they must make it through a very competitive SEC first. The Horns have faced adversity early on this season and backup quarterback Arch Manning has been put to the test. After the young athlete’s first two career starts Steve Sarkisian made something clear on coaching Manning.
Arch Manning has been called to the rescue ahead of schedule. The heir to football’s biggest QB family has started on consecutive outings as Quinn Ewers dealt with an abdominal strain. Many things can be polished, but Manning’s play has been impressive and the Longhorns remained undefeated through the absence of their starter.
Head coach Sarkisian expressed his coaching style when dealing with a promising prospect like Manning. Sark made something clear regarding the strictness and standards by which he evaluates Arch’s play on his first college football experiences.
“I coached him hard today in-game,” Sarkisian said, per On3. “We’re always going to continue to push these guys to try to be the best. And I thought there were some things in today’s game that Arch did really, really well.“
Arch Manning 16 of the Texas Longhorns in action vs the Mississippi State Bulldogs at DKR-Memorial Stadium. Texas defeats the Bulldogs 35-13.
“I did want to make sure that we were getting him completions. I just didn’t want him to feel like a home run hitter every time he got in the box. I think playing quarterback, you’re shooting for the Triple Crown. We want to hit with a great average… I felt like last week, we were kind of a home run hitter. But, I was proud of him. I thought he really responded coming off of last week’s game. And what a luxury, to have a player of his caliber as our backup quarterback.“
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Sarkisian update on Ewers
The Longhorns have been able to weather the storm since Ewers’ injury. However, the competition will only get stiffer going forward and Texas will need their starting QB back healthy. That is not taking anything away from Manning’s plate, though. The young athlete came in and showed great composure and maturity and kept the Horns on track.
As for Ewers, Sarkisian has provided an udpate on his health status as the team heads into their bye week. Thus, Quinn will have some extra time to rehab and get back healthy without the clock ticking on him.
“He’s just rehabbing as he’s been. I think he’s been making steady progress one day to the next, which is a good sign,” Sarkisian said, via InsideTexas. “We haven’t had any setbacks. It’s been steady progress. I think he’s getting stronger and more comfortable and more confident. We’ll just kind of stay the course with that.”
Judging off Sark’s comments, Ewers should be expected to dress and start for the Longhorns when they return to NCAA action on October 12th when they take on Oklahoma.
