Mistakes within the Texas offense are magnified against nationally-ranked competition — not when the Longhorns play San Jose State, UTEP and Saturday’s opponent, Sam Houston, amid current struggles from Arch Manning.
Steve Sarkisian has the utmost confidence in his first-year starting quarterback, so much so he did not remove him from Saturday’s win over the Minners despite 10 straight incompletions at one point during a frustrating performance.
“I think some of this is really good,” Sarkisian said Monday. “Here’s a guy who’s had an awesome life, you know? The way he’s grown up, where he played, the school he went and people he’s been surrounded by. But I think you learn a lot about yourself through adversity and overcoming adversity and getting on the other side.
“All of this is going to serve not only well for him, but well for us as a team. Love the challenge for him and love the challenge for us. He is a strong-minded guy, great work ethic and great poise. Great composure. I love the end of the movie for him when he gets on the other side of this, I’m looking forward to it.”
Sarkisian temporarily benched edge rusher and former five-star Colin Simmons earlier this season after the sophomore pressed a bit early, resulting in penalties and lackluster play.
Asked how he’s handling Manning’s struggles, Sarkisian detailed his plan.
“You just coach them. That’s our job to coach,” Sarkisian said. “Different scenarios call for different measures of what you need to do. If Arch was having a bunch of mental errors and was not operating the offense well, that would’ve maybe required to take him out and I didn’t feel like that was the case.
“Different things require different things to get the point across. We handled it accordingly and we’ll handle it accordingly this week and expect him to come out and have a great game Saturday.”
College Football Power Rankings: Texas continues to tumble amid struggles, Miami rises to No. 1 spot
Brandon Marcello
Manning went 11 of 25 for 114 yards and a touchdown, along with an interception for the third consecutive game over the weekend. Over eight possessions in the first half, the Longhorns punted three times, turned it over on downs twice and ended one inside the red zone with an ill-timed Manning giveaway.
“Yeah, I got to play better. It’s not good enough, as y’all can see,” Manning said, via Horns247. “I got to play better for us to … maybe it slides against UTEP, but it’s not going to win a games against SEC. I got to play better.”
Manning has shown inconsistent mechanics to start the season, first struggling to find a rhythm against Ohio State before missing on several throws he would like to have back despite four touchdown passes in last week’s win over San Jose State.
It was a mixture of both against UTEP, leading to a passing attack that never got going for the Longhorns and needs to show vast improvement in Week 4 ahead of the SEC opener at Florida on Oct. 4.
Read the full article here
