Steve Sarkisian Defends Arch Manning and Says There Is Not a Chance He Gives Up Play-Calling
Texas lost to unranked Oklahoma 27-24 as the No. 1 team in the country, and Steve Sarkisian spent Monday declining to change anything about how his program operates.
Asked whether he would hand off play-calling duties, Sarkisian said there was “not a chance.” Asked whether he would examine special teams coordinator Jeff Banks’ role, he answered with one word: “No.”
He Is All In on Manning
Arch Manning threw two fourth-quarter interceptions in Dallas. One went back for a pick-six that gave Oklahoma the lead. The other came at the end of regulation and set up the winning field goal. He also threw an opening-drive touchdown to Cam Coleman.
Sarkisian’s defense of him was the most interesting thing he said all day. “I think that he’s processing fine,” he said, then made the argument directly: “If you took the name off the back of his jersey and you said here’s Joe Smith playing quarterback at the University of Texas,” he said, “we’d be praising the guy.”
He added that “Arch is on a nice trajectory” and, more plainly, “I hate it for him.”
The Joe Smith Argument Is Half Right
Sarkisian has a point about the standard. No quarterback in college football is scrutinized the way a Manning is, and a lot of what gets written about Arch is about the surname rather than the film.
He is also the quarterback who threw two fourth-quarter interceptions in the biggest game of the season, one of them for a touchdown. The name on the jersey does not change that, and a coach deflecting toward unfair expectations is doing something other than addressing what went wrong.
The Penalties Bothered Him More
On Texas’ penalty problem, Sarkisian was less diplomatic. “I am frustrated,” he said. “Because we are working at it. It’s not for a lack of effort, but it clearly has not been good enough.”
Texas is 1-1 in SEC play and converting 39.2 percent of its third downs, which puts it in the bottom half nationally. That is a troubling number for a team with this much talent, and it is the kind of thing an offensive coordinator would normally be hired to fix.
Why the Play-Calling Question Keeps Coming
FootballScoop’s Zach Barnett argued Monday that if Sarkisian does not hire an offensive coordinator, “it’s going to get him fired,” while explicitly noting that “no one’s saying Sarkisian will be let go tomorrow.”
That is a columnist’s view, not reporting that Texas is weighing a change, and the distinction is worth keeping straight. Nobody has reported that Sarkisian’s job is in jeopardy.
What has happened is that a head coach who calls his own plays lost as the No. 1 team to an unranked rival and spent Monday saying he would not delegate anything. If Texas wins out, that answer looks like conviction. If it does not, it looks like the reason.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
