Matt Leinart criticizes Steve Sarkisian benching Quinn Ewers for Arch Manning

Steve Sarkisian made a risky move on Saturday night with the Longhorns trailing Georgia 20-0 in the first half. He decided to bench starting quarterback Quinn Ewers and put his backup quarterback in the game, Arch Manning. The move drew plenty of criticism from people online, including former USC quarterback Matt Leinart.

Premature Sark going to Arch there. How do you go back to Ewers now? A lot of ball left this game and season.

— Matt Leinart (@MattLeinartQB) October 20, 2024

He questioned the move on his Twitter page.

“Premature Sark going to Arch there. How do you go back to Ewers now? A lot of ball left this game and season,” Leinart tweeted.

Steve Sarkisian decided to make a quarterback change following the Texas offense’s rough start against Georgia, turning to Arch Manning. One week after looking rusty against Oklahoma, the start from Quinn Ewers was not much better. Texas was quickly playing from behind and Sarkisian felt the need to make a switch.

Steve Sarkisian explains switching to Arch Manning

ESPN’s Holly Rowe spoke with Sarkisian before heading into the halftime locker room, asking him the logic behind his decision. The head coach says Ewers needed to settle down while Manning had an opportunity to provide a spark.

“I was just trying to settle Quinn down a little bit,” Sarkisian said. “Trying to give us a little bit of a spark. But we got to get out of our own way. We’re not playing very good as a unit right now. Thank God our defense is putting out some fires for us.”

Quinn Ewers still the starting QB for Texas

Manning got two drives in the first half before not playing in the second half. Ewers was the guy to see out the game as Texas fell 30-15 at home. Next up for Texas is Vanderbilt on the road and No. 3 will still be the guy starting for the Longhorns moving forward according to Sarkisian.

“Quinn’s our starting quarterback,” Sarkisian said in his postgame press conference. “I appreciate the fact we’re fortunate enough to have a backup like Arch that could come into the game and provide a spark in some sense. At the end of the day, Quinn’s our starter. I think, like I said, we’ve got to do a better job around him. I think he would tell you he can play better, but we’ve got to coach better. Everybody’s got to be better for our offense to perform better.”

On3’s Griffin McVeigh also contributed to this article