AUSTIN — Texas Longhorns senior quarterback Arch Manning has a plan to rebound from his disappointing performances, including a second straight come-from-ahead loss to the Florida Gators on Saturday.
“I’m gonna die on the hill of, I’m letting it rip,” Manning said Monday.
That mentality stands in marked contrast to how the Texas starter has played recently.
“I feel like I’ve been a little too hesitant, to be quite honest,” Manning said.
Beyond the vague generalities typically offered by the Texas quarterback,
like “I just need to play better,” this is about as incisive as it gets for Manning. And it’s true.
Beyond a misfire to junior wide receiver Cam Coleman on a hopeful vertical route on 3rd and 8 early in the second quarter when Manning didn’t take a hitch to allow the out route by junior wide receiver Emmett Mosley V to come open, most of the Texas quarterback’s issues on Saturday were about hesitation, the unwillingness to “let it rip.”
The issue first surfaced on the second drive after the emphasis on the screen game maintained the early momentum for the Horns — in fact, the first completion by Manning that wasn’t a screen was a fake screen — moving the ball into the red zone and setting up a 2rd and 3, the type of on-schedule play for which play callers like Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian live.
On the 16-yard line, it was also from the high red zone, an area where Sarkisian has done well scheming up successful calls this season. And his call in this instance set Manning up for success with a switch release that got the outside receiver open up the seam for a touchdown. Instead of ripping the throw, Manning airmailed his attempt at a check down to senior running back Hollywood Smothers, unnecessarily putting the ball at risk.
Even a play call that Sarkisian took responsibility for on Monday, calling his decision to roll Manning out “crummy,” featured too much hesitation from Manning.
On 3rd and 1 from midfield in the fourth quarter, Sarkisian went back to a similar play call that he used twice against Oklahoma with Mosley running an out route. Once again, Mosley was open, but Manning tried to scramble instead and was tackled behind the line of scrimmage because Florida anticipated the rollout and had multiple defenders overloading the right side of the Texas line. Certainly, there was a level of predictability there based on Sarkisian’s recent tendencies, but that doesn’t change the fact the Mosley was open and it wasn’t a difficult throw to complete.
On the subsequent 4th and 2, Manning came off the slant to Coleman because the defender in coverage grabbed his face mask, and instead of waiting for the slant to come open as an underneath defender cleared the passing lane, Manning was tackled for a three-yard loss when he tried to scrambled up the middle.
And on the game-sealing fumble, Mosley was open on an out route, as he was so frequently during the game, but Manning held the ball in the pocket too long, a frequent occurrence on the five sacks by the Gators.
Other areas of deficiency compound the hesitation — Sarkisian either doesn’t trust Manning to execute reads on run-pass options and quarterback read options, predetermining them instead, or Manning consistently makes the wrong reads, like he did on a 3rd and 3 in the first quarter when he could have pulled the ball and run for a touchdown himself or thrown it to sophomore tight end Nick Townsend to score. Instead, Smothers was dropped for a three-yard loss.
Asked multiple times on Monday about whether those reads are predetermined, Manning was evasive, but the true answer doesn’t really matter that much because the outcome is the same and has remained that way across multiple games.
Manning also doesn’t have much freedom to change plays at the line of scrimmage, and doesn’t seem to want it.
“I’m sticking with the play call,” Manning said.
Sarkisian seemed to echo that sentiment Monday.
“We’re not a huge just put-it-all-on-the-quarterback-to-audible [team],” Sarkisian said. “We do change protections, and I think he manages those things well. When we have run-run checks and things of that nature, run-pass check, I think those things are pretty defined. He does a good job with that.”
Does he, though?
There appears to be a real drop off between Ewers and Manning as a result — Texas isn’t effectively optioning off defenders and can’t get out of bad plays at the line of scrimmage.
But beyond the apparent lack of football intelligence that makes Manning limited before the snap, the most frustrating aspects of Manning’s inconsistency are the regular flashes of elite throws that make it hard to give up on him as the starting Texas quarterback and as a prospect.
Against the Gators, the flash came in the fourth quarter when the Longhorns were down 10 points and needed a big play to have a chance at an unlikely comeback. Maning delivered it on 4th and 6 from the Texas 29-yard line, buying enough time in the pocket to allow a long-developing route from Mosley to come open and delivering a strike as he got hit in the face for a 62-yard gain.
When Sarkisian says that he needs a better version of Manning, what he’s asking for is more consistency to pair with those big-time throws, starting with less hesitancy.
With the Longhorns in the midst of a two-game losing streak to unranked teams, there’s a lot on the line for Manning and Sarkisian, especially with a major challenge awaiting on Saturday against the No. 7 Rebels.
Manning believes that Texas is ready for it, and that he’s ready for it.
“I think this team’s built for adversity,” Manning said. “I’m built for adversity, and we’re going to respond. I know that.”
