Texas walked into Saturday with an Arch Manning issue it could no longer ignore.
A week after Steve Sarkisian defended his quarterback in the aftermath of the Longhorns’ 27-24 loss to Oklahoma, Manning turned in another shaky outing in a 27-24 defeat to Florida. Texas has now dropped back-to-back games by the same score after starting 4-0 and climbing to No. 1 in the country, and the conversation around its quarterback situation has shifted fast.
Manning finished the Florida game 14-of-20 for 173 yards and one touchdown, with the score coming in the final five minutes. His day also came with a 20.8 QBR, a number that underscored how little he was able to consistently move the offense against the Gators.
That follows a rough stretch that included two costly interceptions in the fourth quarter of the loss to Oklahoma. At that point, Sarkisian was still publicly backing his quarterback.
“I think if you took the name off the back of his jersey and you said, ‘Here’s Joe Smith playing quarterback at the University of Texas and here’s a guy who’s beaten four top-10 ranked teams in his last 13 starts,’ we’d be praising the guy,” Sarkisian said at the time. “But the expectations are high for him, and he understands that. The expectations are high for all of us, so we’ve got to put our nose back to the grind and get back to work.”
Now, though, Texas appears ready to at least test another option in practice. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the Longhorns are “expected to give an up-tick in first-team quarterback reps to redshirt freshman KJ Lacey Jr this week in practice.”
Thamel also noted that Manning still projects as Texas’ starter, but the increased work for Lacey is a clear sign the Longhorns may be preparing for a change if Manning’s struggles continue.
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