AUSTIN, Texas — If a single image sums up how the quarterbacks of the then-No. 1 Texas Longhorns performed in Saturday’s 30-15 loss to the then-No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs in Austin, it’s not even Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning taking hits or fumbling or on the ground after one of the seven sacks by Georgia head coach Kirby Smart’s defense.
It’s of both quarterbacks on the bench in the closing seconds of the first half looking shellshocked and wearing 1,000-yard stares in which images of Dawg defenders chasing them from every angle danced.
For Manning, the redshirt freshman who was experiencing true SEC size and speed for the first time, it was understandable and forgivable. He’d been inserted into the game with 4:43 remaining in the second quarter by Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian with the Longhorns down 20-0 and struggling for any footing at all, thanks in part to the struggles of the redshirt junior Ewers, who had already thrown an interception and fumbled.
“I felt Quinn was a little uneasy, and I just felt like giving him a chance to kind of step back, regroup. I didn’t know if we get a series or two with Arch [Manning], depending on how much time was remaining in the half on the clock. So we just told Quinn, ‘Hey, we’re gonna go with Arch here, Give you a chance to get into the locker room. Let’s regroup and then come back out in the second half,’” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said after the game…