This week, news broke that Texas Longhorns star quarterback Quinn Ewers would miss some time with a shoulder injury. But even with Ewers out, it doesn’t look like five-star freshman quarterback Arch Manning will get the first chance at starting in his place.
During his press conference this week, Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian revealed that while both Maalik Murphy and Arch Manning will get first-team reps during practice this week, it certainly sounds like Murphy has the upper hand when it comes to earning the starting job against the BYU Cougars this week.
“If the game was being played today, Maalik [Murphy] would start the game,” Sarkisian said, according to Inside Texas. “Again, Arch will be ready to go.”
Steve Sarkisian says they will go through the week with Maalik Murphy and Arch Manning both getting first-team reps: "If the game was being played today, Maalik would start the game. Again, Arch will be ready to go."
— Inside Texas (@InsideTexas) October 23, 2023
It’s pretty brutal news for Manning, who many hoped would even push for the starting job over both Ewers and Murphy this year. And the college football world had a lot to say about it on social media as a result.
To answer the question before it gets asked a million times in chat. Yes quinn is down yes I am sad no arch manning is not starting when we have this unit as a backup QB. The same guy multiple SEC teams attempted to tamper and pull away with NIL offers. pic.twitter.com/QvEuLv1YGD
— WilzZy (@CwilzZ) October 22, 2023
https://twitter.com/DanielGill94970/status/1716508202471194749?s=20
A lot of words to say that the kid isn’t ready
— Robert Hughen (@RobertHughen) October 23, 2023
I hate it for Ewers, but I am excited to see Maalik Murphy get this opportunity. Seems like a phenomenal kid and he's definitely got an NFL-caliber arm. I'm interested to see what he can do with it. https://t.co/JrOBEM0O4m
— Mike Herndon (@MikeHerndonNFL) October 23, 2023
But I was told Arch was a 5 star+++ greatest prospect to have ever lived? https://t.co/1WZxpEp20N
— Mr. Pilkington (@Onikuno) October 23, 2023
It's happening https://t.co/JIRB22G3EE
— Steven Willis (@TheStevenWillis) October 23, 2023
Shouldn't this read "prepared to start Maalik Murphy over highly touted Arch Manning"?
— Fred Garvin Male Prostitute (@male_garvin) October 23, 2023
Despite signing with Texas as the No. 1 overall player in the 2023 high school recruiting class, Manning has yet to play a single snap for the Longhorns. We’ll have to see if that changes this week, but it doesn’t look likely he’ll earn the starting job over Murphy if he hasn’t passed him on the depth chart yet.
