Nick Saban praises Arch Manning, Texas QB depth

SEC Media Days kicked off on Monday in Dallas, which naturally comes with predictions and forecasts of how the upcoming college football season will look.

Recently retired Alabama head coach Nick Saban has now made the jump from coaching to media, joining SEC Network’s team at media days as an analyst. Asked with the rest of SEC Now‘s panel who he believes will be in the SEC Championship game in December.

Saban chose SEC newcomer Texas as one of the two programs he feels will be in this year’s conference title game. Also giving praise to Longhorns’ backup quarterback Arch Manning in the process, citing the team’s depth at the quarterback position as a reason why he thinks they’ll be in Atlanta at the end of the regular season.

“I think Texas, if their defense comes through and they can replace some of the interior people that they lost that were high draft picks and all that, they’re really good offensively,” Saban said. “And even though their quarterback has missed time, [Quinn] Ewers, has missed time in the last couple years, Manning was lights out in the spring game.”

“Arch was like 21-for-25 for 347 yards,” Saban added. “That depth at quarterback is probably really important for them because Ewers has missed time the last couple of years, a game or two, which could really affect where you end up. So I really like Texas.”

Ewers enters his third season as the starting quarterback for the Longhorns, helping lead the program to a long-awaited Big 12 title win (a game where he was named the Game Most Outstanding Player) and the team’s first College Football Playoff appearance. But in the last two seasons, he’s missed 5.5 games due to several injuries.

Meanwhile, Manning joined the Longhorns last offseason as the No. 1 recruit in the nation and brought with him a large spotlight that comes with his namesake. Showing steady improvement behind the scenes in Austin which was highlighted by his 300+ yard, three touchdown performance in Texas’ spring game in April.

Some have been clamoring for Manning to get his opportunity to shine for the Longhorns, but there’s no question that Ewers has earned his claim as Texas QB1. But given his healthy history, it will be fascinating to see if Manning does make some appearances under center as the Longhorns join the SEC with high expectations in 2024.