Nick Saban on Arch Manning's struggles: 'The bench is a pretty good motivator'

Nick Saban thinks Arch Manning may yet have success at Texas, but the quarterback may need a bit of motivation to do it.

In his weekly appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Saban weighed in on the Longhorns quarterback and his recent struggles. In Saban’s mind, coach Steve Sarkisian’s threat to bench Manning may serve as a motivator by reminding Manning that he is not “entitled” to the starting quarterback job.

"Sark made it very clear when he had a meeting with Arch and said to him, 'Look, we can't win with this guy.' It's always a tough decision for a coach to make a change like that when you have a high-profile player who's very capable and has shown at times he's very capable. But at the same time, I think if Arch doesn't continue to play with consistency, Sark's going to keep it in the bag," Saban said.

“I always say, the bench is a pretty good motivator, especially if a guy’s a great competitor, which I think Arch is. The threat that he may not be entitled to the job may be something that motivates him and keeps him motivated through the rest of the season.”