When nothing was going right for the Longhorns in the first half against Georiga, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian went to his bullpen. Sark took starting QB Quinn Ewers out of the game and inserted Arch Manning.
It was surprising to Texas fans and non-Texas fans alike. “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.”
The move didn’t immediately work. Manning was 3 of 6 for 19-yards and a fumble. But when Ewers came back in the game at the beginning of the second half, he looked revived. The junior came out of the locker room and led a 55-yard TD drive that gave the Longhorns immidiate momentum.
So, maybe the move worked better than first thought.
“I felt Quinn was a little uneasy, and I just felt like giving him a chance to kind of step back, regroup. 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.’ I just didn’t think he was at his best. A lot of things I’ve seen him do, I wasn’t quite seeing. I don’t think his eyes were where he needed to be. That’s why I felt like he needed to reset and regroup at halftime.” — Steve Sarkisian.
Either way, a rival’s hero was very vocal in his criticism of the move. Former Texas A&M Aggies QB Johnny Manziel called replacing Ewers a “really weird decision” in an interview with the Action Network.
“Coach Sark has come out and said that [Ewers] is his guy, he’s our starter, so at no point throughout would I ever think I would see him have to go to the bench. I thought this was a really weird decision. I don’t think it’s a situation where you have to go to the sideline and look at something or anything like that. Maybe [Texas] were trying to get a little bit of a spark going, but it didn’t really come to fruition the way they wanted it to.
Quinn Ewers is a guy you’re expecting to be, maybe one of the first quarterbacks off the board in the NFL Draft, and you send him to the bench. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It seems like they have a good relationship, and you’re really at the point where you’re just going with what your coach says and trying to win football games.” — Johnny Manziel
Johnny “Football” says he expects Sarkisian’s move will increase the expectations for Manning to play when Ewers struggles.
“When you’re in the position [Texas] were this week, they were just scraping and clawing for anything. So I’m sure they’ll be able to figure it out this week and come to a resolution, but it definitely is going to have some fans chattering to see Arch on the field.” — Johnny Manziel
The former Aggie QB played for A&M right after the school left the Big 12 for the SEC. He won the Heisman as a freshman. His NFL career was a bust and Johnny Football has had a multitude of legal and financial problems over the years.