Steve Sarkisian explains decision to replace Quinn Ewers with Arch Manning in first half vs. Georgia

Top-ranked Texas scattered 29 total yards across its first six drives in a 30-15 loss to No. 5 Georgia Saturday night in DKR Memorial Stadium. Four of those drives ended in punts, one ended in a fumble and another ended in an interception.

Georgia took advantage of Texas’ offensive ineptitude, particularly the two turnovers committed by quarterback Quinn Ewers, off which Bulldogs running back Trevor Etienne scored two of his three touchdowns on the night.

With Georgia leading 20-0 late in the second quarter, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian made a change. In came second-year signal caller Arch Manning for Ewers, a third-year starter who, by that point, was only 6-of-12 for 17 yards through the air.

“My feeling in the game was I felt Quinn was a little uneasy, and I just felt like giving him a chance to kind of step back and regroup,” Sarkisian said postgame.

“I didn’t know if we’d get a series or two with Arch, depending on how much time was remaining in the half on the clock. So we just told Quinn, we said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna go with Arch here. Give you a chance to get into the locker room. Let’s regroup and then come back out in the second half.’ So that’s what we did.”

Sarkisian added: “I felt like it was effective. I thought Quinn came out and played a much better second half and played well in the third quarter.”

But first, Manning tried his hand at the Texas offense. He couldn’t wrangle the unit, either. In fact, on his second and final series, he also fumbled. Georgia sophomore outside linebacker Damon Wilson II stripped and sacked Manning, and junior inside linebacker Jalon Walker recovered the rock at the Texas 30-yard line with 25 seconds to go before intermission. That was enough time for the Bulldogs to tack on three more points.

Manning’s brief appearance saw him complete 3-of-6 passes for 19 yards. His first drive stayed alive momentarily because of a Georgia face mask penalty. Manning moved the chains with a 21-yard run on his second drive, plus an eight-yard completion to junior running back Jaydon Blue kept things going as well. Unfortunately for Manning, back-to-back sacks, including the drive-ending strip sack, threw a wrench in any momentum he was building.

Manning starred for Texas earlier this season when Ewers went down with an oblique injury in Week 3 against UTSA. Manning thrived in relief of Ewers that game and the led the Longhorns to victories over Louisiana-Monroe and Mississippi State the following weeks while making his first two career starts.

Along the way, Manning totaled 10 touchdowns (eight passing, two rushing) with only two picks. He threw for 806 yards, not to mention his additional 82 yards on the ground, in that three-game run.

Sarkisian dismissed any potential quarterback controversy postgame Saturday.

“Quinn’s our starting quarterback,” Sarkisian said following Texas’ first loss of the season. “I appreciate the fact that we’re fortunate enough to have a backup like Arch that can come into the game and provide a spark in some sense. But, at the end of the day, Quinn’s our starter.”

Ewers completed 19-of-31 passes for 194 yards and two touchdowns in the second half against Georgia. Both of those scoring strikes came in the third quarter, at which point Texas made it a 23-15 game.

Except, despite piling up 106 total yards of offense in the fourth quarter, Texas couldn’t finish drives in the final frame. Playing catch up after Georgia scored an insurance touchdown early in the period, the Longhorns were stopped on fourth down on all three of their fourth quarter drives, including twice in the red zone.

“I think we’ve got to do a better job around [Quinn],” Sarkisian said. “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 offensive football team to perform better.”