Texas Longhorns QB Arch Manning Gives Texas A Bright Glimpse Into the Future

There isn’t a need to get the quarterback battle talks going again, but Arch Manning’s showing on Saturday was everything Texas needed.

With Quinn Ewers only playing for about 30 seconds, it was all Manning. Something that was by design, as Ewers himself said he knew he’d see limited action. While you never want to read too much into spring games, Manning getting a chance to play a lot and thrive was needed.

Injuries are unfortunately a part of football, and Ewers has missed a couple of games per year in Austin. Manning was only featured in garbage time last year, but his dominant spring showing should instill confidence in case Ewers goes down and for the future. 

He went 19 of 25 on the day with three scores for 355 yards. Two of his touchdowns were deep shots, which have been hard to come by consistently for Texas. While it shouldn’t come as a surprise, the former five-star and top-ranked quarterback with the “Manning” name was surgical.

To make matters better for Texas, who went about a decade with mediocre to below-average quarterback play, true freshman Trey Owens balled out too. The quarterback situation is looking a lot like the one that saw Alabama go from Jalen Hurts to Tua Tagovailoa, to Mac Jones, to Bryce Young. 

Steve Sarkisian was quite pleased about what he saw from Manning when speaking to the media. 

 “I wanted Arch to be able to just go play football. … The biggest thing I saw from Arch was something that we really harped on with him about a week and a half ago about just dialing into playing the play and keeping your eyes up.”

In a perfect world, they won’t need to turn to Manning as a result of injury, but he showed accuracy, arm strength, and was constantly making the right play. While waiting his turn another year wasn’t likely in his plans, he should hit the ground running when it’s his turn.