No.2 Texas 56, UTSA 7: Five observations and Sunday chat

Welcome to Arch-sanity!

The No. 2 Texas Longhorns handled their business in Austin on Saturday night in a dominant 56-7 win over the UTSA Roadrunners.

If you were worried about Texas potentially having a letdown performance following the win in Ann Arbor, then you were put at ease pretty quickly. That is right up until quarterback Quinn Ewers had to be helped to the sideline and was held out for the remainder of the contest.

That was certainly the biggest storyline of the night given how well Ewers has been playing this season, but his departure swung the door wide open for backup quarterback Arch Manning to light up the Roadrunners and steal the headlines for the evening. We all knew we would see Manning in action on Saturday, but nobody figured it would be due to injury to Ewers.

The Ewers news aside, there wasn’t much to be upset about coming out of the matchup. It wasn’t a perfect performance by any means, but I’m sure that is just fine by the coaching staff as it gives them things to harp on to keep the team focused heading into next week.

With that said, lets dive into Saturday’s domination of the Roadrunners.

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Quinn Ewers gets bit by the injury bug

I touched on it briefly in the intro, so we might as well start here since it will likely be the primary thing discussed over the next week or so. Ewers was off to another good start having already thrown two touchdowns (while also throwing an interception on an errant check down) before he went to the turf and needed to be helped to the medical tent.

Whatever was discovered during that evaluation led to a pretty quick decision to Ewers heading to the locker room and returning in street clothes, thus signaling it would be Manning’s show the rest of the way. Sarkisian told the broadcast at halftime that the diagnosis was a strained abdomen and didn’t give much more at the time. The best-case scenario is that Texas was being cautious with their QB1 given that he wasn’t exactly needed for extended action given the opponent and you had a very capable QB2 in Manning.

Ewers certainly looked to be in some discomfort on his last drive of action. You hope it isn’t something that lingers long term, but there is no telling of the severity at this time. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Texas is cautious over the next two weeks given their schedule, so that they can make sure that Ewers is ready to go for the game in Dallas against Oklahoma.

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Arch Manning had a coming-out party

Have yourself a night, Archibald!

While Ewers getting dinged up certainly was a bummer, the other side of the equation is that Manning looked like the real damn deal in his first taste of extended action on Saturday. Manning showed us a little bit of everything during his stint on Saturday, including flashing the wheels that he most certainly inherited from his grandfather.

Seeing a quarterback with the last name Manning being able to run that fast still doesn’t compute for me. Any time you breaking 20 mph you are moving, and you can see Manning pulling away from defenders on that run. When you see that kind of athleticism on that run combined with the arm talent he continues to put on display then you can see why he was more than deserving of that lofty five-star ranking coming out of high school.

Yes, UTSA is not a great team, but seeing Ewers go down and Manning come in and put on this type of performance has fired up the burnt orange fan base. This was an extended glimpse into the future when Manning is set up to take over the reins in 2025. It also shows everyone that Texas has a more than capable backup in case he is called upon down the line in 2024.

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Lukewarm take: Jerrick Gibson needs more touches

When it was announced that Jaydon Blue was going to be out on Saturday, I was anxious to see what Quintrevion Wisner and Jerrick Gibson did with their opportunities to get increased touches. I have liked what both have shown when they have got into the game so far this season when they spell Blue in the back field, but I have been saying since the Colorado State game that I really like how Gibson totes the pill.

Ever since I saw Gibson looking like this early in camp I began to wonder if he would be the guy that got utilized in short yardage and in goal-line packages. After seeing how hard he runs and how he finishes off his runs I felt even better about that becoming a reality. The broadcast on Saturday said he is known by his teammates as Baby Rhino and I think it might be growing on me.

Wisner got the start on Saturday, but it didn’t take long for Gibson to start getting the bulk of the carries with 13 to Wisner’s four. Even when recorded his first fumble of the season, he was inserted right back into the lineup instead of Wisner, who took a slight knock, but could have returned to the game if necessary, according to Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian.

As long as Gibson is able to hold up in pass protection, I think he is making his case for an expanded role behind Blue moving forward. He’s been productive each week and continues to look the part of a future RB1.

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Texas’ overall team depth was on display

One of the primary things that separates the good teams from the rest of the pack is having good, quality depth. Through three games it is clear to me that Texas is one of those teams that is privileged to have good, quality depth, and it showed up early and often on Saturday.

UTSA was never going to be able to match up with Texas, but you could see Texas rotating guys in early and often and they were still able to function at a high level. Look no further than Manning stepping in for Ewers for extended action. Or how about guys like Gibson and Wisner picking up the slack with Blue out for the day? How about guys like Colton Vasek and Ty’Anthony Smith making splash plays in the second half?

When you watch Texas play, the list of contributors gets long very fast week in and out and it is truly a testament to the job Sarkisian and his staff have done rebuilding this roster. They have elevated both the ceiling and the floor of the program and while it is too early to start talking about next year, you can see glimpses into the future when you see some of the young pups out there contributing.

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Despite the blowout, there are still things to clean up

These are more or less quibbles for me, but I think it is worth bringing up.

Texas dominated this game from start to finish, but there were definitely some things that will be highlighted by the staff so that they can keep their players sharp and hungry. Some of things that stand out were decision making by the quarterbacks (Ewers’ pick and Arch holding the ball resulting in a sack), run fits (the lone UTSA score was the result of linebacker David Gbenda being a step slow getting into his gap), and money-down efficiency.

Lets start with the quarterbacks. The pick thrown by Ewers was a result of his mechanics breaking down a bit and him air-mailing a pass that was intended for Wisner on a check down. One of the knocks in the past on Ewers is that he allows his fundamentals, typically his footwork, to get away from him at times, which results in errant throws.

As far as Arch goes, he will likely be reminded that his internal clock needs to move a little quicker when defenses are sending pressures with more blitzers than blockers. That free-running defender was on him to deal with so he either needs to dirt it or he needs to get out of the pocket and throw it away.

Run fits were a big bugaboo last year for the defense at times, but so far this year they had been a lot better. Before that explosive run play by UTSA, Texas hadn’t surrendered a run longer than 13 yards. Gbenda in particular has been playing well to start the year, so I expect Johnny Nansen will be riding his position group pretty hard this week and hammering home run fits.

Lastly, Texas took a step back in money-down efficiency this week after brutalizing Colorado State and Michigan the previous two weeks. This didn’t really hurt them this week because they were able to produce so many explosive plays throughout the game, but they will need to make sure they clean that up moving into next week.

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3-0

Nothing like dropping a 50 burger for the hometown crowd. I also want to take this time to point out that I almost nailed the final score in the round table. I had Texas winning on Saturday 56-6. Soooooo close.

Saturday was a lot of fun to watch. Definitely was a rough night for the folks who spent a lot of time saying Arch Manning was overrated.

The 24-hour rule is now in effect. Then it is on to ULM and time to focus on becoming 4-0.