Texas coach Steve Sarkisian's honest take after Arch Manning's first career start
The Texas Longhorns played their first game in sixteen years as the No.1 ranked team in the country on Saturday night, and they did so with sophomore quarterback Arch Manning making his first career start in relief of Quinn Ewers, who left Texas' win over UTSA last week with an oblique injury .
Predictably, the Longhorns cruised against Louisiana Monroe on Saturday night, routing the Warhawks to the tune of a 51-3 final. Arch Manning threw an interception on Texas' first offensive drive of the game, but bounced back nicely after that, managing the game and finishing with 258 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Manning gave himself only C-plus for the effort while conceding "a win's a win," but Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian had a much more optimistic outlook on his young QB's performance.
"To think he was going to come out and play a perfect game, I don't think anybody in here thought that," Steve Sarkisian said after the game, per Max Olson of ESPN.com. "I thought he was going to prepare really well, work really hard, do everything he could to play good football. He was going to have some lessons learned, and I think that's what tonight was about."
Sarkisian noted that Texas' game plan called for Manning to take some deep shots in his first start, and the sophomore did just that, completing two 40-plus yard passes to Isaiah Bond and Matthew Golden. In total, Manning completed passes to 11 different receivers.
"Having so many playmakers around you, it definitely brings up the comfort level for me," Manning said after the game. "We got a bunch of different receivers catch balls tonight. Just getting them in space and having them make plays is huge."
Despite of a pair of Arch Manning interceptions, the Texas offense hummed along just fine in the absence of Quinn Ewers, racking up nearly 500 yards of total offense and 26 first downs for the game. But a 48-point win and a few nice throws won't be enough to spark a quarterback controversy. Earlier this week, Steve Sarkisian reiterated that there is no QB competition brewing in Austin. The job of leading the Longhorns to their first National Title in nearly twenty years is one that belongs to Quinn Ewers .
"I think we have a national championship caliber team and he's the quarterback of that team," Sarkisian said, according to Lindsey Plotkin of Sports Illustrated.
Texas plays Mississippi State next week and then has a bye before returning to the field for the Red River Shootout against a reeling Oklahoma Sooners squad on October 12th. After that, the Longhorns will host the Georgia Bulldogs in what is potentially only the sixth regular season matchup between the top two teams in the AP Poll this century.
