Steve Sarkisian explains why Arch Manning did not play in blowout

The Texas Longhorns scored a convincing 37-10 win over Rice on Saturday, but Arch Manning did not get the chance to play in the blowout. That was not according to coach Steve Sarkisian’s plan.

Sarkisian admitted Thursday that he had intended to get Manning into Saturday’s game, but said the fourth quarter simply went by too fast for him to get his freshman quarterback meaningful playing time.

“Quite frankly I had all intentions of playing Arch in that game,” Sarkisian said, via On3. “I didn’t think that the fourth quarter would go as fast as it did, and then I didn’t want to put him in there for the last minute and a half and use a game on that.”

Manning can appear in four games before losing his redshirt status. It makes sense that Sarkisian would not want to waste one of those games by putting him on the field for such a limited amount of time.

The public would love to get a glimpse of Manning, as the behind-the-scenes reports have been overwhelmingly positive. We will probably have to wait at least another week, as it seems highly unlikely that Texas will have cause to turn to him against Alabama.