Arch Manning did not play during the Texas Longhorns’ season-opener against Rice, even though head coach Steve Sarkisian wanted to get him in the game. The new clock rules spoiled the freshman quarterbacks’ college football debut. Bummer.
Manning, the first grandson of football, was the No. 1 overall prospect in the recruiting class of 2023. To say that there is a lot of hype surrounding his future would be an understatement.
Even though Texas is a top-15 team in the country with former top-ranked recruit Quinn Ewers at the helm and freakishly jacked four-star Maalik Murphy as the backup, most of the preseason chatter surrounded the highly-coveted freshman. Will Manning replace Ewers at any point this year? Is he overrated? All kinds of questions swirled.
By the time that the season got underway against the Owls, the focus had shifted toward the Longhorns on the field. It was less about Manning and more about going 1-0.
But it was still, a little bit, about Manning.
Considering that Texas was slated to destroy Rice, there was hope to get a glimpse at the young signal-caller after the score got out of hand. That was especially true as the Longhorns got out to a 34-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
It was ultimately Murphy who got in first.
According to Sarkisian, the plan was to get Manning a few reps at the end of the game. Even though he is likely going to redshirt this fall, he can play in four games without penalty.
Arch Manning nearly made his Texas debut.
Unfortunately, the new clock rules kept that from happening. The clock no longer stops after first downs so games are moving much faster than they did before. Especially when a team is running the ball to try and drain clock during a blowout win.
As a result, Sarkisian kept Manning on the sideline because he didn’t want to “waste a game,” which alludes to the fact that the five-star freshman will redshirt in 2023.
Manning almost made his Texas debut in front of a sold-out home crowd in his first game. The clock kept him from getting a single rep.