Steve Sarkisian clearly learned from previous Arch Manning mistakes with Texas

Near the end of the Texas Longhorns regular season, questions started bubbling up about starting quarterback Quinn Ewers and how some of his mistakes and shortcomings could be mitigated. Obviously, that brought Arch Manning into the equation, especially after the redshirt freshman performed well for the Longhorns while Ewers was sidelined with an injury earlier in the year.

That, however, turned out to be the wrong course of action regarding Manning, specifically from what we saw in Texas' loss to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. Whether it was on the young quarterback or head coach Steve Sarkisian, his sporadic usage in sub-packages seemed to take the Longhorns completely out of rhythm and ultimately hurt the game flow of the offense.

We saw Sarkisian dial that back a bit in their First Round win in the College Football as Manning played even fewer snaps and perhaps to even less effect than we saw against Georgia. As such, many were wondering what the plan would be for Arch Manning in the Peach Bowl on New Year's Day, the CFP Quarterfinal matchup against Arizona State.

At least based on the first half, it seems like Sarkisian and Texas learned from the previous errors.

Arch Manning mistakes clearly won't be repeated by Steve Sarkisian

As Texas jumped out to a 17-3 halftime lead over Arizona State, Manning was nowhere to be seen. Even in the red zone, an area of the field wherein the Longhorns have struggled mightily this season, it was Ewers with the ball in his hands and Manning looking on from the sidelines.

While Manning has confirmed that he'll be back with Texas next year and is the presumptive starting quarterback taking over for Ewers, this isn't his time yet. He filled in admirably but, if he's not going to usurp Ewers as the starter, the two-quarterback system — even in a mildly used rotation — clearly doesn't work for the Longhorns. In fact, it looked like it was detrimental to the offense against Georgia and Clemson.

Having said that, this isn't to say that Manning isn't immensely valuable for Texas in the College Football Playoff for the reasons we saw earlier in the year. Ewers has been anything but the picture of health in his college career. If another injury were to occur, few teams in the Playoff have the insurance policy behind their starting quarterback that Texas does with Manning.

But the SEC Championship Game and First Round win proved that's where Manning is most valuable. He's more mobile than Ewers and could offer different looks for the Texas offense, sure, but the truth of the matter is that the offense has been more consistent and, frankly, better when they've left Ewers to his own devices.