Texas’ Steve Sarkisian explains why he briefly replaced Quinn Evers as Arch Manning’s replacement

Texas football had a disastrous first half against Georgia on Saturday night. Despite defending the No. 1 overall ranking and playing at home, the Longhorns were overwhelmed right out of the gate and were no match for Kirby Smart’s Georgia defense as the Bulldogs jumped out to a 23-0 halftime lead. .

Minutes before halftime, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian made the shocking decision to bench star quarterback Quinn Evers in favor of redshirt freshman Arch Manning. Manning played two runs for Texas before the break, and the Longhorns failed to score a single point.

Sarkisian brought Evers back into the game early in the second half, and the Texas offense began to find its footing. However, it was too little, too late as Georgia pulled away for a 30-15 win. According to On3 Sports’ Andy Backstrom, Sarkisian explained after the game that he decided to briefly reach out to Manning.

“I felt in the game that Quinn was a little uncomfortable and I just wanted to give him a chance to take a step back and regroup,” Sarkisian said, according to Backstrom. “I didn’t know if we’d get a series or two with Arch, depending on how much time was left on the clock before the half. So we just told Quinn, “Hey, we’ll go with Arch.” Give you a chance to get into the locker room. Let’s regroup and then come back in the second half.” That’s what we did.”

What went wrong for Texas vs. Georgia

Saturday night was a humiliating night for Texas, which is almost certain to lose its No. 1 ranking after its loss to Georgia. In the first half, Texas’ offense had no answer to Georgia’s defense and ended up trailing 8-ball all night.

Texas managed just 29 yards on its first six drives – four punts, a fumble and an interception – before Quinn Evers was benched. In the first half, Evers threw for just 17 yards on 12 attempts.

In this case, pass protection was a huge problem for Texas. Georgia has a deep stable of talented, athletic offensive linemen, and they gave Texas problems along the offensive line all night. Even superstar Calvin Banks Jr. – a potential top-10 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft – has struggled at times against the Bulldogs in this draft. Evers didn’t have much time to operate in the pocket, and things went south from there.

Georgia was also very well prepared for Sargsyan’s scheme. His usual diet of unique screens and misdirection plays did nothing against a Georgia defense that flew to the football and played all night long. Texas also struggled to run the ball early in the game, so the onus of the game fell squarely on the shoulders of Evers, who played in the pocket.

Now is not the time to worry about Texas, but this was a poor performance from a team that was starting to look unbeatable this season.