Texas coach Steve Sarkisian is faced with a quarterback situation similar to one his former boss Nick Saban has experienced before.

The former Alabama offensive coordinator has two starting quarterbacks — Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning. After Ewers left last week’s 56-7 win over UTSA with an oblique injury, Manning scored five touchdowns and the highly-rated redshirt freshman will make his first collegiate start on Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe.

During ESPN’s “College GameDay” on Saturday, Saban compared the Texas quarterback’s situation to the one he experienced with the Crimson Tide in 2017.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts was the SEC’s Offensive Player of the Year and led Alabama to the SEC Championship and a berth in the CFP National Championship game as a freshman in 2016. But in 2017, the Tide brought in quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and gave the incoming freshman a chance to play while Hurts remained the starter.

“That kind of goes hand in hand with the situation we had with Jalen Hurts and Tua,” Saban said of Texas’ Ewers and Manning. “Jalen had a 26-2 record as a starter, but we used Tua as much as we could because we knew there was going to be a moment where he would have to come in and win the game if Jalen Hurts was unavailable or unable. So that’s exactly Texas’ situation, which is very good long term because the depth of your team this year is going to have a significant impact in all the games you have to play in the playoffs.”

Tagovailoa’s moment came at halftime of the CFP championship game against Georgia on Jan. 8, 2018. Alabama was trailing 13-0 after two quarters, so Tagovailoa took over at quarterback for Hurts and threw three touchdown passes (including the game-winning one in overtime) and the Crimson Tide won the title 26-23.

Before that, Tagovailoa had played enough in eight games to complete 35 of 53 passes for 470 yards with eight touchdowns and one interception as Hurts’ replacement.

The next season, the roles were reversed, with Tagovailoa as the starter. In 2019, Hurts moved to Oklahoma.

Both quarterbacks entered the NFL in the 2020 draft and became starters during their rookie seasons. Hurts, with the Philadelphia Eagles, and Tagovailoa, with the Miami Dolphins, still hold those NFL positions, although Tagovailoa is on the injured list after suffering a concussion last week.

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After Ewers was injured in last week’s game, Manning completed 9 of 12 passes for 223 yards and four touchdowns and had a 67-yard touchdown run against UTSA.

To avoid any controversy surrounding the quarterback position, Sarkisian stated this week that Ewers would return to the starting lineup once he was healthy.

“I tried to make it clear to Quinn that all the goals he had and that we gave him earlier in the season still apply to him,” Sarkisian said Thursday. “I think we have a national championship-caliber team, and he’s the quarterback of that team.”

During an appearance on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” Saban said he liked that Sarkisian got ahead of the situation.

“I think what he did yesterday at the press conference sent the message loud and clear that we have a championship-caliber team and we have a chance to maybe do something special with this team, and Quinn Ewers is the quarterback,” Saban said. “And I think that’s probably how it should be.”

ULM and Texas kick off Saturday at 7 p.m. CDT at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas. ESPN+ will broadcast the game.