A year ago, Texas Longhorns quarterbacks Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning sat on the sideline of Campbell-Williams Field at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium looking shellshocked, an indelible moment
in a disastrous first half.
The Bulldogs were up 20-0 with 17 seconds remaining in the second quarter to close out a first half during which Ewers was sacked three times, including a violent hit on a strip sack, and went 6-of-12 passing with an interception.
Minutes earlier, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian had made the controversial decision to bench his multi-year starter in favor of Manning, the backup to Ewers.
It didn’t help much, as Manning went 3-of-6 passing for 19 yards and was sacked twice himself, losing a fumble on the second backfield hit.
While benching Ewers with 1:48 remaining in the second quarter, Sarkisian told his starter to regroup during halftime to prepare to re-enter the game in the second half.
Sarkisian reflected on the decision this week.
“I felt like against Georgia with Quinn last year, we were a little bit overwhelmed as an offense in general. He had gotten hit with a pretty good sack-fumble on a corner blitz that he didn’t see coming. So at that point, I don’t know if he was seeing great, and so sometimes taking a step back when you’re not seeing things really well, that’s a way to go,” Sarkisian said.
Ewers bounced back, completing his first pass of the second half for 24 yards and throwing for two touchdowns in the third quarter as Texas tried valiantly to mount a comeback. It fell short, but Ewers recorded 192 of his 211 passing yards after halftime, leaving Sarkisain feeling vindicated with his decision making.
“I felt like it worked,” he said.
This year, however, Sarkisian has let Manning play through his struggles as a redshirt sophomore, including 10 straight incompletions against UTEP. Over the seven games in 2025, Manning looked confused and overwhelmed by the variety of defensive looks provided by Ohio State, struggled with his accuracy in multiple games as a result of mechanical breakdowns, and let his eyes drop to pass rushers as his offensive line failed to block effectively, cratering in a road loss to Florida that featured six sacks and eight more quarterback hurries.
Against Wildcats in Lexington last Saturday, Manning went 12-of-27 passing for 132, only narrowly besting the 44-percent completion percentage he posted in the miserable win over the Miners.
And yet, neither performance led Sarkisian to turn to his backup quarterback, well-traveled redshirt senior Matthew Caldwell, like he turned to Manning last year.
“I think that I felt like his demeanor in both games when I was talking to him, he was seeing things well. His communication was good with Coach [AJ] Milwee about what we were trying to do,” Sarkisian said.
Unlike the loss to Georgia, Texas also had better control of the game against Kentucky, breaking a scoreless tie with a touchdown midway through the second quarter, and extending the lead back to seven with a field goal late in the third quarter.
Perhaps more importantly, Manning was showing enough signs of finding a rhythm that Sarkisian stuck with his starter with the Texas head coach cited a big-time throw on that field-goal drive in the third quarter on which Manning took a hit while completing a 31-yard pass to sophomore wide receiver Emmett Mosley.
“I didn’t feel like there was anything happening Saturday night that Arch wasn’t seeing — he was throwing the ball to the right people that were open,” Sarkisian said.
In a disturbing trend, however, Manning hasn’t been completing those throws to open receivers consistently.
One of the biggest misses of the game came on the next play when Manning’s pass intended for junior tight end Jack Endries was uncatchable, sailing high and landing incomplete.
So even though Manning was seeing things right, he rushed the throw, speeding up his footwork and impacting his accuracy on what should have been a 15-yard completion with plenty of room for Endries to run after the catch.
Texas ultimately settled for a field goal after getting off schedule because of the incompletion, but note that Endries shifted twice before the play — the Kentucky defense communicated the change in coverage as both tight ends changed sides, but when Endries shifted back across the formation, there was no communication, and the play-side linebacker bit on the run fake after junior running back Quintrevion Wisner moved from the Pistol formation to the shotgun, resulting in the linebacker turning Endries loose without any help over the top.
Given the concerns about Sarkisian’s play-calling ability, the misfire by Manning is not only indicative of the Texas quarterback’s play-to-play inconsistency, but also an example of Sarkisian putting him in position to succeed, to no avail.
“Sometimes that’s human nature, that, hey, we’re humans. We’re going to make some physical errors. And he had a couple physical errors the other night,” Sarkisian said of Manning.
Even if that’s not enough for Sarkisian to justify benching Manning, Texas needs fewer physical errors from its starting quarterback and the rest of the offensive operation.
