Johnny Manziel slams Steve Sarkisian for benching Quinn Ewers for Arch Manning vs. Georgia

In the second quarter of Saturday’s game against Georgia, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian surprised many when he benched Quinn Ewers for Arch Manning. That includes Johnny Manziel, who slammed the move.

Manziel, speaking in an interview with The Action Network, called it a “really weird decision” to replace Ewers in the first half of the matchup. He later returned in the second half, though, in Texas’ 30-15 loss to Georgia at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium.

The former Texas A&M standout pointed to Sarkisian’s previous comments about Ewers’ standing as a starter, even despite missing two games due to an abdominal injury. Manning impressed in his place, but Sarkisian made it clear Ewers would be the starter. That’s why Manziel wondered about the thought process during Saturday’s game.

“Coach Sark has come out and said that [Ewers] is his guy, he’s our starter, so at no point throughout would I ever think I would see him have to go to the bench,” Manziel said. “I thought this was a really weird decision. I don’t think it’s a situation where you have to go to the sideline and look at something or anything like that. Maybe [Texas] were trying to get a little bit of a spark going, but it didn’t really come to fruition the way they wanted it to.

“Quinn Ewers is a guy you’re expecting to be, maybe one of the first quarterbacks off the board in the NFL Draft, and you send him to the bench. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It seems like they have a good relationship, and you’re really at the point where you’re just going with what your coach says and trying to win football games.”

Texas struggled mightily through the first two quarters against Georgia, totaling just 36 pass yards in the first half. Manning came in and completed 6-of-9 passes for 19 yards after entering the game with 4:42 to play in the second quarter. At the time, Texas trail 20-0 – a deficit that grew to 23-0 by halftime.

Johnny Manziel pointed out the offense’s struggles and the need to get anything going. As for the impact of Sarkisian’s move going forward, he expects more people to want Manning to play.

“When you’re in the position [Texas] were this week, they were just scraping and clawing for anything,” Manziel said. “So I’m sure they’ll be able to figure it out this week and come to a resolution, but it definitely is going to have some fans chattering to see Arch on the field.”