While the Texas football team escaped Kentucky in overtime on Saturday, winning 16-13, it was another lackluster offensive performance from star quarterback Arch Manning. Though Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian puts the blame on more aspects than just Manning, he would continue to defend the sophomore Monday.
Speaking to the media a couple of days removed from the victory to Kentucky, he would say that the dismal offense is “on nobody but me,” according to Inside Texas.
“At the end of the day offensively, I've got to do a better job,” Sarkisian said. “I've got to do a better job of putting all of our players in position to be successful, that's blocking people, that's throwing the ball to open people, that's running routes precisely where they need to be. That's on nobody but me. When you can look in the mirror first and say I'm responsible to try to get this fixed and get better at it. Very comfortable with that.”
Sarkisian would point to Manning potentially overthinking during plays and not taking the “layups.”
“For a quarterback, when you get those opportunities when you have layups, I don't think you need to overthink it,” Sarkisian said. “You just need to take the layup. I think that's challenging when you feel like you're working in a game. He had to work Saturday night. You just need to do what you do and just throw the ball and play catch.”
Texas football's Steve Sarkisian on the offense led by Arch Manning
As Sarkisian said he will not bench the Texas football quarterback in Manning, he looks to build off an outing where he threw for 132 yards with no touchdowns or picks, completing 12 of 27 pass attempts. Sarkisian would once again point to himself and the coaching staff for putting their offense in the best position to succeed.
“As a staff, you have to have the real conversation of what do we do to help our players be successful?” Sarkisian said. “It's not about what I know, what looks good on the whiteboard when you draw it up, it's what are our guys going to execute really well predicated on the defense that we're playing and where are our strengths? Without divulging what we're going to do game plan wise, I do think you'll see some more adjustments this week to what we do.”
Manning and the Longhorns look to improve as they take on Mississippi State next Saturday.
