Sarkisian Speaks on Arch Manning’s Performance

 Texas quarterback Arch Manning had arguably his worst performance of the season on Saturday night as he threw just 12-27 for 132 yards and no touchdowns, as he wasn’t even able to run the ball somewhat effectively like normal.

He finished with a 44% completion rate and struggled to hit open targets plenty of times throughout the night. His accuracy was far off many times, and his decision-making was no better either. But on the bright side, he didn’t turn the ball over.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke about his performance after the game.

“We need to play better up front to protect him,” Sarkisian said. “It’s not fun when you’re at quarterback and you’re getting hit. It was way too leaky for him, and in turn, that can create some uneasiness when you have opportunities to make throws and you don’t. I do think there was a couple of critical passes that he didn’t make. The third down conversion to DeAndre Moore was a huge play for us, that play to DeAndre that we hit out of the backdoor. But we’ve got to find ways to get him more completions. That’s our job as a staff to find that comfort level for him because there were some really good plays in there. That ball to Emmett [Mosley] across the middle for an explosive. There are good things there, but there are some layups that we’ve got to hit for him too, that he needs to hit, but we need to find more of those opportunities.”

There may have been a few good plays, but that does not excuse the blatantly bad passes he threw. The offensive line didn’t help him out much either, which has been a major problem recently, but there were still too many errant passes to forget about.

As Manning continues to struggle, it leaves many wondering when a change might be needed. That change could either be who the play-caller is, which is currently Sarkisian, or at quarterback.

The Longhorns currently have three quarterbacks sitting behind Manning: Matthew Caldwell, Trey Owens and KJ Lacey. However, when asked about potentially making a change, Sarkisian dismissed the possibility.

“No, I wouldn’t,” Sarkisian said.

Who the quarterback is may not change, but Manning and the offense will need to work together to ensure that the level of play from the quarterback does, because Texas still has three more top-10 teams to face.

Next up for the Longhorns, though, are the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Texas will make the trip to Starkville to face them on Saturday at 3:15 p.m. CT on SEC Network. Texas is currently favored by 6.5 points, according to BetMGM.