With 900 yards passing, nine touchdowns, and two interceptions – plus three rushing touchdowns – Arch Manning has the Texas Longhorns’ offense thriving. But he’s still a placeholder for the No. 1 quarterback spot.
That’s the assessment of head coach Steve Sarkisian. The Texas coach said Quinn Ewers is on target to return next week when Texas faces archrival Oklahoma for the first time in the Southeastern Conference.Â
The No. 2 Longhorns enter the bye week with Manning healthy but Texas coach Steve Sarkisian did his best to diffuse any notion of a controversy with the Red River Rivalry on deck. Ewers was reportedly close to being cleared to play last week from the abdominal strain that knocked him out of the 56-7 win over UTSA.
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Sarkisian said the Longhorns plan to lean into the luxury of time. The bye buys Ewers four extra work days to rehab before diving into plans for the meeting with the Sooners in Dallas on Oct. 12.
“He’s just rehabbing as he has been. I think he’s been making steady progress one day to the next, which is a good sign,” Sarkisian said on Monday. “We haven’t had any setbacks. It’s been steady progress. I think he’s getting stronger and more comfortable and more confident, and so we’ll just kind of stay the course with that.”
Sarkisian left little to speculation on Saturday after Manning guided the Longhorns to a 35-13 win over Mississippi State.
- Arch Manning stats: 900 passing yards, 9 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, 85.8 QB rating
Texas Longhorns head coach puts Arch Manning QB controversy to rest
“We need Quinn back because he’s our quarterback, and he’s our leader,” Sarkisian said after Manning . “I think that that impacts the entire team’s belief. But what I think we learned, and what Arch kind of earned here over the last two and a half games, is this team can count on him too… When we get Quinn back, we’re all going to be excited about that but we also know, gosh, what a luxury that we do have.
“And what valuable experience Arch got here over the last two and a half games.”
Ewers led Texas to a win at Michigan and is completing 73.4 percent of his passes for 691 yards and eight touchdowns with two interceptions this season. He missed the past two games but Sarkisian believes he’ll jump back into the Heisman Trophy conversation when he takes the field again.
“(Ewers) is going to be in New York for the Heisman (as a finalist), whether he wins it or not, but he has the ability to do that,” Sarkisian said last week. “I think he has the ability to be a top-five NFL draft pick. All of the things that I think he is capable of are still out there for him. Him not playing in this game Saturday is not going to impact those three things that I know are goals that we’ve set for him and that he’s working towards.”
