Arch Manning is coming for Quinn Ewers job with Steve Sarkisian’s blessing

Quinn Ewers was the Texas Longhorns starting QB last season but Arch Manning has arrived and Steve Sarkisian is letting him come for the job. 

Arch Manning is joining the Texas Longhorns as one of the most talked-about recruits in college football history. However, after head coach Steve Sarkisian landed Quinn Ewers on the transfer market last offseason, another former top recruit in his own right, and started him in the 2022 season, the expectation appeared to be that Manning would wait in the wings as a freshman.

That might not be the case.

After the first Texas football spring practice, Sarkisian opened the door to a quarterback battle in Austin as he said that no position was settled this spring and that everyone would be competing for a job, Arch Manning included.

“I’m not worried about who’s going to be on the cover of what magazine next week,” Sarkisian said, via Dave Wilson of ESPN. “I’m more focused on is, is each guy focusing on what they need to do to develop to be the best player that they can be? Quinn has an entire year of a head start, but I don’t want to hold Arch back. I want to see how far he can take this thing and what it can look like.”

Let the drama begin.

Texas football: Arch Manning is coming for Quinn Ewers’ job

With a recruit as hyped as Arch Manning entering the fray, there were two ways for Sark to handle this. The first was to react like he’d just been lightly touched on the shoulder and angrily affirmed that this was Ewers’ job to try and quell a fanbase sure to call for Manning at the first sign of trouble.

The other was to do what he did. We know that Manning has all of the tools and, even if Sark didn’t say anything about him having a chance to be QB1, should have the chance to put them on display in the spring to see if he or Ewers is the better option. But the head coach went out and said exactly that, which opens the door to a potentially slippery slope.

When it comes to that, the downside of this option is pretty obvious. Now that it has been put out there that Manning and Ewers are competing, if the latter wins the job but has any moments that aren’t perfect, fans are going to question Sarkisian for not making Manning the starter and, more importantly, for not moving to Manning during the season.

How this all works out remains to be seen. But the fact of the matter is that the Arch Manning era is going to provide endless entertainment from Texas and Sark made sure to get that started right away.

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