{"id":470369,"date":"2026-10-19T08:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T08:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/470369\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T08:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T08:50:12","slug":"with-cfp-still-in-reach-for-now-is-arch-manning-texas-best-option-at-qb-moving-forward-national-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/470369\/","title":{"rendered":"With CFP still in reach (for now), is Arch Manning Texas’ best option at QB moving forward? | National Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 So, if Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian intends to appraise the state of his offense after consecutive clunkers, does that mean quarterback Arch Manning\u2019s job is in jeopardy?<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything means everything,\u201d Sarkisian said Saturday afternoon when asked what his offensive evaluations will entail.<\/p>\n

Sarkisian did not suggest directly that Manning will be benched after a 27-24 loss vs. Florida at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium, nor did he answer multiple questions that asked whether he considered a midgame quarterback change, but he did acknowledge that there\u2019s \u201cno doubt about it\u201d that the junior could\u2019ve been better vs. the Gators.<\/p>\n

Manning passed for 173 yards (the fewest he\u2019s totaled vs. a power conference team this season) and a 20.6 quarterback rating (the lowest he\u2019s posted vs. any team this season). He did not throw any interceptions, but he was responsible for several questionable misses and a fourth-quarter fumble that stalled what could\u2019ve been a go-ahead drive.<\/p>\n

Manning has been statistically one of the worst quarterbacks in his own conference. Per Pro Football Focus, he\u2019s earned a 69.7 overall offensive grade, which ranks 10th out of the SEC\u2019s 16 primary starting quarterbacks. His 145.3 rating ranks ninth, his 11 touchdowns rank ninth, his 63.9% completion rate ranks 10th and his 1,295 passing yards rank 12th. That\u2019s in part led to back-to-back losses against unranked teams in which Manning and his offense looked stale outside of a handful of drives.<\/p>\n

Sarkisian and Co. must now decide if Manning is their best in-house option with a postseason berth still a legitimate possibility. The Longhorns’ second-string quarterback is redshirt freshman KJ Lacey, a former four-star recruit from Saraland, Ala., and their third-string quarterback is true freshman Dia Bell, a former four-star recruit from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.<\/p>\n

Lacey, who\u2019s thrown nine career passes, is the only one of the two who\u2019s played in a college game. He was described by 247Sports.com<\/a> as \u201cone of the better pure passers\u201d in his high school class who can \u201cpush the tempo\u201d with \u201cquick release and swift decisions.\u201d The Longhorns looked their best offensively vs. the Gators when they played at a quicker pace early.<\/p>\n

But if the Longhorns do bench Manning in favor of Lacey, they\u2019d proceed into arguably the hardest stretch of their regular-season schedule with a largely unproven quarterback behind center. The Longhorns will play three ranked teams \u2014 No. 7 Ole Miss, No. 22 Missouri and No. 18 LSU \u2014 in their next four games and next week\u2019s contest vs. the Rebels is at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be easy for me to say, ‘Hey, Arch was the problem today,’\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cWas Arch perfect? No. But nobody was perfect on offense today. We took turns today. That\u2019s where I have to look at every aspect of what we\u2019re doing, because if it was one person, it\u2019d be easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manning wouldn\u2019t be the first high-profile quarterback benched this season. Michigan benched former top recruit Bryce Underwood during their win vs. Penn State on Saturday afternoon. Manning and Underwood were both the top high school quarterbacks in their respective classes and each arrived on campus with massive expectations, though the former was considered a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate, while the latter needed to prove himself after an underwhelming freshman season.<\/p>\n

There are fewer instances where preseason Heisman Trophy favorites \u2014 which Manning was, at plus-750 alongside Notre Dame quarterback C.J. Carr, per BetMGM \u2014 were benched midseason. The last was Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler, the 2021 preseason Heisman Trophy favorite and potential top draft pick, who lost his job to freshman Caleb Williams midseason during that year\u2019s Red River Rivalry game against Texas at the Cotton Bowl. Rattler entered the transfer portal that offseason, spent two seasons at South Carolina and was selected in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL draft by the New Orleans Saints.<\/p>\n

A trip to the bench would certainly ding Manning\u2019s draft stock.<\/p>\n

So will further struggles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 So, if Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian intends to appraise the state of his offense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2895,159682,72498,132,134,133,416,22858,3118,159684,20894,159685,463,101014,159686,154,9368,27,464,159683],"class_list":["post-470369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-alabama","tag-amateur-sports","tag-americas","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-college-sports","tag-conflicts","tag-florida","tag-football-american","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-national-collegiate-athletic-association-sports","tag-north-america","tag-politics-and-government","tag-saraland","tag-sports","tag-team-sports","tag-texas","tag-united-states","tag-unrest-and-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}