Steve Sarkisian: Arch Manning, Quinn Ewers Will Both Be Needed by Texas at QB in 2024

Timothy Rapp@@TRappaRTFeatured Columnist IVJuly 17, 2024

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The Texas Longhorns have two viable quarterback options on their hands in starter Quinn Ewers and highly-touted prospect Arch Manning, though questions persist about whether there is a divide between the two as they compete for playing time.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian denied that during an interview with ESPN’s Andrea Adelson, noting that the Longhorns would probably need both players at some point during the 2024 season:

“These guys are great, great friends. Nobody gets along better. There’s a real level of appreciation for what each guy is doing. Because they know the journey, they know the path, they know how we coach him. From Archer’s perspective, he’s watching Quinn have to go through some of the adversity, having a fight through injury, having to deal with the criticism of being the quarterback of Texas, so to see him have success, I think Arch is fired up for Quinn.”On the flip side, I think Quinn recognizes Arch’s journey year one in our system and what that’s like. If you go back to the spring game Arch’s true freshman year, what that looked like, and then to see how he played Year 2 in the system, there’s great appreciation from Quinn for what Arch is doing. So in the end, we’re probably going to need both those guys at some point this season.”Ewers won the starting gig last season and it proved to be a wise decision, as he passed for 3,479 yards, 22 touchdowns and six interceptions, completing 69 percent of his passes while leading Texas to a Big-12 title and a berth in the College Football Playoff.

So Manning is going to enter his second season in the backup, though he impressed during spring practices, reportedly throwing for 355 yards and three touchdowns in the spring game. That obviously excited fans.

“So was I,” Sarkisian said about being excited by those performances himself.

Manning, the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning, was the top overall recruit in the Class of 2023. Generally, top quarterback recruits don’t spend two seasons as the backup, but Manning has chosen not to transfer.

Not that he and Ewers aren’t competing.

“It’s been a good past two years for us, just being able to have him in the quarterback room and us being able to push each other,” Ewers told Adelson. “It says in the Bible, ‘Iron sharpens iron.’ So to have that competitive relationship is good.”

Manning acknowledged in December that there were ” a lot of tough days, I’m not going to lie” when speaking about being the backup.

But ultimately, he labeled it as an opportunity for growth.

“I was never a backup in high school. So there are some days when you graduate early, you’re alone in your dorm room, you’re like, just another day of fighting for the third-string job,” he added. “Some days it’s tough. There’s hard workouts, hard practices, they expect a lot out of you. I’m glad I went through that to help me grow.”

It will likely be a similar situation in 2024, barring an injury to Ewers or a sudden downturn in performance. For the Longhorns, having two quarterbacks of their caliber is a good problem to have.