Steve Sarkisian hints at potential Arch Manning involvement in SEC Championship

The Texas Longhorns are getting ready for a rematch with the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game. It’s a game that head coach Steve Sarkisian plans on having some new offensive wrinkles for, including potentially using backup quarterback Arch Manning in some manner.

Ahead of the game, Sarkisian was asked if there’d be a chance to open the playbook up and get Manning involved more than he had earlier this season. While he didn’t share any exact plans, Sarkisian did explain that they’re always looking to add to the offense.

“We might,” Steve Sarkisian smiled. “I don’t know. I would say, no, we haven’t fully opened our playbook because as a staff we sit around and think about our roster and we think about our team and we think about what we’re good at and we think about what we can improve, and we’re gonna run stuff Saturday that we haven’t run all year because of who were are as a team now and finding new ways to try and move the football and create issues for our opponents.”

Arch Manning has gotten a fair amount of playing time this season. He replaced Quinn Ewers when Ewers battled injury. He’s also seen action in some specific situations, like in quarterback run scenarios in the win against Texas A&M.

“There’s always things that we’re gonna do that are new. I think that the beauty of these guys, offensively, is that they really accept that stuff. Okay, here’s why we’re doing it. So, let’s make sure we get this aspect right,” Sarkisian said.

“So, I don’t know. We did Wildcat there for about three years and that was a big part of what we did with Roschon [Johnson] and we threw Arch in here on a couple of opportunities here in the high red[zone] to get into some quarterback run stuff. We’ve gotten into 21 stuff and utilized [Jaydon] Blue and Tre [Wisner] together. We’re constantly trying to evolve that stuff. We did some tackle over things in this game that we hadn’t shown much of throughout the year. You’re always trying to find little tweaks and things to find some advantages along the way. So, I’m sure there’ll be a few new wrinkles this Saturday as well.”

Texas has had plenty of offensive success under Steve Sarkisian and, in particular, during the 2024 season. The Longhorns are currently 21st in the country in scoring offense with 34.8 points per game.

However, in their first meeting with Georgia, the Longhorns were held to just 15 points. So, there is pressure on Sarkisian to find a new way to create offense this week.