Texas makes the right call starting Arch Manning vs. Miss St

No. 1 Texas football and head coach Steve Sarkisian waited until Saturday morning to make a starting quarterback decision for the SEC opener on Sep. 28 against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. A report from ESPN's Pete Thamel on the morning of Sep. 28 announced that redshirt freshman Arch Manning will get the start against Mississippi State for the SEC opener this afternoon.

Texas football starting QB Arch Manning vs. Mississippi State on Saturday afternoon

Redshirt junior quarterback Quinn Ewers is reportedly at "70 percent" as he's recovering from an abdominal strain injury he suffered early in the second quarter in Week 3 against the UTSA Roadrunners. Ewers is expected to make his return for Texas's offense in the Red River Rivalry game in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl on Oct. 12 against the Oklahoma Sooners.

Until this report from Thamel on Saturday morning, Ewers had been listed with a status of "questionable" on the SEC-mandated injury report earlier in the week.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian made it clear in a press conference on Monday of this week that Ewers needed to show tremendous progress in his recovery from the abdominal injury in practice to get the start this weekend against the Bulldogs.

"He’s got to do enough to show me he can play. I know that’s probably not the answer you wanted, but that’s what I mean. We’ve got a game plan. Can he execute the game plan? I hate to pare it down to that but that’s really the truth. I want to make sure he’s healthy enough to play at a high level. Can he go operate the game plan we have in place for him?"

- Steve Sarkisian on Quinn Ewers

Thamel reported on ESPN this morning that Ewers is only at 70 percent recovery from the abdominal strain, which is pretty far from getting him to operate near peak efficiency for this offense.

Considering the Longhorns were favored by over five touchdowns against Mississippi State for the SEC opener, regardless of whether Manning or Ewers got the start at quarterback, this is a clear edge for Texas on offense today.

It's also noteworthy that since Texas has the bye week coming up after Week 5, even if Ewers played against Mississippi State, any rhythm he built up by playing in this game could go away entering the Oklahoma rivalry contest in a few weeks by mid-October. Ewers can continue to get healthier in practice since he has experience running this offense as a third-year starting quarterback for Texas.

Manning won the first start of his collegiate career last weekend against the UL-Monroe Warhawks, in a dominant 51-3 victory at home in primetime under the lights. He showed resilience, overcoming an early mistake with an interception on his first drive of the game in the first quarter, to lead Texas on four more touchdown drives before the end of the first half.

Between Texas's ability to run the football and Manning's deep ball connection with all the weapons Sarkisian and the Longhorns have on the outside in the receiving corps, the offense can operate at a very high level with Arch taking the reigns this weekend.

This will also be very valuable experience for Manning to start for the Longhorns in an SEC game at home. Manning can get more opportunities to show his growth in this offense while getting his feet wet with the Texas offensive unit in conference play in the SEC.

Texas can let Ewers rest up and get back close to 100 percent for Oklahoma on Oct. 12 after the bye week.

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