Arch Manning is feeling the heat.
Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian said his quarterback is “edgy” as the Longhorns have lost back-to-back games against unranked opponents.
Manning was a big part of why Texas lost those two contests after heading into Week 6 against Oklahoma as the No. 1 team in the country. He committed massive fourth-quarter turnovers in each clash, including a pick-six and another interception against the rival Sooners,.
“I would use the word edgy, and I like it,” Sarkisian said Thursday after the team lost at home to Florida. “He’s edgy right now…we created something else. I don’t know if we lost him, we created this, we did, all of us. Y’all included me, the whole thing, right? Everybody on ESPN, we’ve created this. And so we’ll see what comes out of it.
“Honestly, I appreciate that about him. At some point, he’s gotta fight back. And the best way for him to fight back is going out and playing really good football with his teammates, and enjoy playing football with his teammates. And so I’m looking forward to watching him compete Saturday night.”
The margins are growing thinner for the Longhorns, who are now 4-2, to remain in contention for the College Football Playoff. Last year, Texas went 9-3 and missed the cut for the 12-team pool.
Sarkisian’s comments come days after ESPN reported that Texas backup KJ Lacey would be seeing more first-team reps in practice this week, possibly indicating that the team is prepared to bench Manning if it becomes necessary.
“It just depends, every game’s different,” Sarkisian said when asked if he’d consider removing Manning from a game for reasons other than a blowout. “So I think Arch has had a good week of work, he’s prepared himself well. But like the team, we need to play well, so we’ll go from there.”
Texas, now ranked No. 19 in the country, are favored against No. 7 Ole Miss on Saturday night.
