Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian surprised many when he benched starting quarterback Quinn Ewers in favor of Arch Manning in last week’s 30-15 loss to No. 2 Georgia.
Ewers completed 6 of his 12 passes for just 17 yards with an interception while taking three sacks when he was benched. He only mustered five yards of total offense (UT actually gained 29 yards but lost 24 with Ewers’ sack yardage) and the Longhorns punted three times with a lost fumble and the interception, prompting Sarkisian to turn to Manning to try and find a spark.
While most wanted Sarkisian to stick with Manning in the second half, but Ewers finished the game. The fourth-year UT coach took some flak for the move, but former Florida and Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer explained during a recent appearance on “The Herd” that Sarkisian made the right decision.
“First of all, he’s a coach; he did the right thing, that’s his call,” Meyer said . “He’s a really good quarterback coach. Second of all, I imagine he’s handled that well before this situation happened. He’s talked to the team, the team would probably have been more shocked if he didn’t make that change because when someone’s not playing well, give the other guy a shot.”