AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Longhorns redshirt freshman quarterback Arch Manning will make his first career start Saturday when the No. 1-ranked Longhorns host the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, head coach Steve Sarkisian announced during his media availability Thursday.
The starter, redshirt junior Quinn Ewers, suffered an oblique strain in last Saturday’s home win against UTSA, left the game early in the second quarter and will miss the final non-conference game against ULM.
“I feel like Quinn has made a lot of progress since Saturday night,” Sarkisian said. “I’m excited about his future as a player, but also the future of the season for us. I think it’s good for us to keep him healthy for possibly another week as we prepare for SEC play.”
Replacing Ewers, Manning delivered a sensational performance in the longest outing of his young college career: On his first play, he threw a 19-yard touchdown, on his third play he ran for a 67-yard touchdown and finished the game with 9 of 12 passes for 223 yards and four touchdowns.
“Arch is more than capable, as we all know. He has a lot of trust from his teammates and his teammates trust him to go out and play, had a really good week of work and understands the plan,” Sarkisian said. “But it’s different, it’s different when you’re the starting quarterback than when you’re coming off the bench as a backup, so it’s a different challenge for him, but I know he’s going to be more than ready to go out and play football at a high level for us.”
As Manning prepares for his start, the challenge for the young quarterback is changing.
“Now he’s had the whole week to study the game plan thoroughly, know the openings and things like that. My goal is not to overanalyze him and get into some kind of analysis paralysis. I want him to play football, and the best way to play football is to trust the decision, execute it and then move on to the next play,” Sarkisian said.
Among the other injured Texas players, Sarkisian said junior running back Jaydon Blue, sophomore running back Quintrevion Wisner and sophomore safety Jelani McDonald will all likely be out against ULM. Blue and McDonald both missed the UTSA game with ankle injuries, while Wisner suffered an injury during the game and did not return.
