QB battle begins at Texas in Arch Manning's first week of spring practice
The Arch Manning era is upon us. This is, of course, unless Quinn Ewers puts it on ice.
The nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning and grandson of Archie Manning, Arch is the latest to carry the family tradition. His college football journey began this week with the start of spring practice.
He's in competition for the starting quarterback job at Texas with sophomore Ewers, the former top-overall recruit in the class of 2021. He originally committed to Ohio State before transferring to Texas ahead of the 2022 season.
Ewers looked good in an early high-profile game against Alabama, going 9-of-12 for 134 yards in the first quarter before suffering a sprained clavicle that forced him to miss the remainder of the game.
Texas lost 20-19 and Ewers missed the team's next three games. He finished the season 172-of-296 (58.1 percent) for 2,177 yards, 15 touchdowns and six interceptions in 10 starts.
When asked about the starting QB battle, head coach Steve Sarkisian said, "Quinn has an entire year of a head start, you know, but I don't want to hold Arch back. I want to see how far he can take this thing."
If Manning wins the starting role as a freshman, he'll do something his famous uncles never did while in college. Neither started immediately as freshmen, with Peyton backing up Jerry Colquitt and future Colorado Rockies great Todd Helton at Tennessee in 1994 while Eli sat behind senior Romaro Miller at Ole Miss in 2000.
The QB battle brewing at Texas spring camp could be a precursor to a bigger storm down the road and is sure to be the biggest headline to emerge out of spring camp in college football.
As for it being the dawn of the Arch Manning era? Ewers might have something to say about that.
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