The Texas Longhorns won their inaugural SEC game on Saturday, rolling to a 35-13 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
It was the second career start for highly-touted freshman quarterback Arch Manning, who continues to fill in for Quinn Ewers, who is recovering from an oblique injury.
Manning’s second start went well. The quarterback was sharp, completing 26 of 31 passes, throwing for a pair of touchdowns, and rushing for one.
Speaking to the media after the game, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian took time during his weekly media conference to explain his coaching philosophy regarding Manning.
“I did want to make sure that we were getting him completions. I just didn’t want him to feel like a home run hitter every time he got in the box. I think playing quarterback, you’re shooting for the Triple Crown. We want to hit with a great average… I felt like last week, we were kind of a home run hitter, and we were hitting .250 and I wanted to get that average up,” Sarkisian noted via On3.
The 50-year-old head coach noted that Manning had a great game and passed every test.
“There was some nice, nice plays made by him, especially on some third down conversions. And there was a couple other ones I thought he could have operated the plays even better. So, that’s our job — to push him to go do that. But, I was proud of him. I thought he really responded coming off of last week’s game. And what a luxury, to have a player of his caliber as our backup quarterback.”
Manning and the Longhorns have an open week before October 12’s Red River Rivalry with the Oklahoma Sooners.
[On3]
