College football fans have wondered if Arch Manning could make his debut earlier than expected now that Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers is injured, and we may have to wait until Saturday to find out.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian announced on Thursday that redshirt freshman Maalik Murphy will start against BYU. Sarkisian said he has not yet decided if Manning will play in the game.
“Maalik is going to start and go play in this game,” Sarkisian said, via Leah Vann of LoneStarLive.com. “I have not made a decision if I want to get Arch in there just to get him in there or not.”
Sarkisian said Murphy had his best day of practice on Thursday. The coach added that he does not expect Murphy to be perfect in his first career start, which likely means we are not going to see Manning at the first sign of trouble for Murphy.
However, Sarkisian admitted that there would be some “value” in having Manning play.
“We have discussed that some because I do think there’s some valuable experience for him in that,” Sarkisian said. “But I have to make sure that that’s in the best interest of the team, and the team comes first in everything that we do. But I do see the value in something like that. I just am not ready to make that call yet.”
Ewers suffered a shoulder injury during Texas’ 31-24 win over Houston last week. An MRI revealed that Ewers has a grade 2 AC joint sprain. The injury resulted in everyone asking the same question about Manning.
Texas has made it a point to protect Manning’s redshirt status, and that is unlikely to change. NCAA rules allow for a player to appear in a maximum of four games and still maintain redshirt status, so it is not out of the question that Manning will get an opportunity at some point while Ewers is out.
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