Bench Arch Manning? Major changes needed for Texas after another unacceptable loss to Florida

AUSTIN - One week after losing to its archrival, Texas returned to action Saturday with a painfully repetitive refrain.

Same old, same old.

As in the exact same 27-24 losing score as the crushing defeat against Oklahoma the week before.

As in an identical and growing-old pattern of poor offensive performances as has been the case this entire season.

The expected bounce-back never came as a reeling and unranked Florida team, coming off back-to-back blowout losses and playing without its starting quarterback and best wide receiver, stunned the No. 7 Longhorns 27-24 at Royal-Memorial Stadium.

Make that a reeling and perhaps unranked Longhorn team, which is now coming off back-to-back losses in which it has twice blown double-digit leads and was booed by some of the 103,989 fans on hand. Texas fell to 4-2 and 1-2 in SEC play while Florida improved to 5-2 and 3-2 in league action.

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There was barely a cloud in the crystal blue skies over DKR, but dark, angry clouds are forming over Steve Sarkisian's program that not only lost consecutive games for the first time in five years - during a six-game losing streak in a 5-7 season in 2021 - but took a major step backward.

This was not only an unacceptable defeat, given that Texas entered the season with one of the five largest payrolls in college football and even soared to No. 1 in both polls after a comeback win over then top-ranked Ohio State and 4-0 start.

It's also inexcusable, a notion even Sarkisian recognizes. His team looked disconnected and ineffective for most of the day. But the sixth-year coach at least grasped the significance of the loss and put every possible option on the table for next week's home game against Ole Miss and likely for the foreseeable future.

And now he has to come to grips with the fact that Florida has probably wrecked Texas' season for the second straight year and leaves it at clear risk of missing the College Football Playoff game for two years in a row.

You can expect Sarkisian to push for CFP expansion to 24 teams immediately. Why wait until 2027?

To boot, the Longhorns might be without their best player in edge rusher Colin Simmons, who left the game with a leg injury early in the third quarter and did not return.

That added to the insult. Texas became just the third team in AP poll history to be ranked No. 1 and lose two straight games to unranked opponents. The game also ended the Longhorns' 22-game home win streak over teams not ranked.

"Obviously we're extremely disappointed. We didn't play very good football today outside the first quarter," Sarkisian said. "We kind of bled out. We've got a better team than we are right now."

That's up for debate.

As evidence of his disappointment, Sarkisian point-blank said he'd leave no stone unturned in assessing where his team is and where it's headed. Probably to a meaningless bowl game much like last year. Same old, same old.

"We're not playing great offensive football right now, so everything is being evaluated," he said. "We're not calling good enough plays. We're not winning one-on-ones. I mean, it's all of it. It's like I have to evaluate everything. It's going to be a long night."

Asked if that process could include the drastic idea of benching Arch Manning, Sarkisian said, "Everything means everything."

He's correct in doing so. And Sarkisian needs to mean it.

He should demote Manning. The senior quarterback has been a shell of the player who finished last season as one of the best in the country. He's antsy in the pocket. He's not seeing open receivers. He lacks pocket presence. He leads the SEC with three fourth-quarter turnovers.

Even Sarkisian said Manning should have thrown to an open receiver before losing the fumble that sealed the game.

Sarkisian should give sophomore backup KJ Lacey Jr. a shot. Doesn't have to be a permanent change. But the coach once pulled starter Quinn Ewers and played Manning for a couple of series against Georgia two years ago and he needs to consider giving Lacey a look. What's the harm?

Manning can be terrific at times, but is way too inconsistent and isn't playing with confidence. He completed 14 of 20 throws for 173 yards and a 9-yard touchdown to Cam Coleman, but 62 of those came on a broken-play, deep pass to Emmett Mosley to set up Coleman's score. Two of the completions for 17 yards came on flip passes behind the line of scrimmage in what are glorified jet sweeps.

"Everyone's evaluated every week," Manning said. "That's how it is when you're at a school like this with elite players. So everyone's got to get better."

When he was asked about replacing Manning during Saturday's game, Sarkisian said, "I think it was hard because everybody was taking turns. Was Arch perfect? No, but nobody was perfect on offense today. We took turns today."

Gators coach Jon Sumrall went with his backup, sophomore Tramell Jones Jr., in his first career start and he might never go back to injured starter Aaron Philo. The athletic Jones passed for 155 yards and two touchdowns, ran for 41 yards and never at any time look ill-equipped for the role.

Sarkisian also said he'd look at the play-calling. He should. Critically.

Maybe he doesn't have anyone on his staff he would entrust with that job, but he couldn't do worse than look at quarterback coach A.J. Milwee and give him a chance to fill that role or hire a permanent offensive coordinator/play-caller in the offseason like the most successful head coaches in the game have done.

FLORIDA 27, NO. 7 TEXAS 24

First Quarter

TEX_R.Brown 32 run (Spetic kick), 11:42.

TEX_FG Spetic 38, 6:42.

Second Quarter

FLA_FG Durkin 45, 13:48.

TEX_Niblett 63 punt return (Spetic kick), 11:27.

FLA_Dippre 7 pass from T.Jones (Durkin kick), :18.

Third Quarter

FLA_Dippre 8 pass from T.Jones (Durkin kick), 6:50.

Fourth Quarter

FLA_FG Durkin 28, 10:40.

FLA_Baugh 11 run (Durkin kick), 6:22.

TEX_C.Coleman 9 pass from Manning (Spetic kick), 4:21.

A_103,989.

___

___

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING_Florida, Baugh 25-91, T.Jones 10-41, Montgomery 4-20, Singleton 2-8, Pryor 2-4, (Team) 3-(minus 6). Texas, Smothers 12-52, R.Brown 8-47, Manning 10-0.

PASSING_Florida, T.Jones 22-35-0-155. Texas, Manning 14-20-0-173.

RECEIVING_Florida, Singleton 7-43, Stockton 4-31, Wilson 3-27, Dippre 2-15, Baugh 2-13, Mays 2-13, Montgomery 1-8, Harpring 1-5. Texas, Wingo 5-49, Bishop 3-24, C.Coleman 3-18, Mosley 2-76, Smothers 1-6.

MISSED FIELD GOALS_None.

Texas hasn't shown to be a good offensive team at any point in this season, which includes a distressing 1-2 SEC record. And on Saturday, the defense sank to its offense's level, allowing the Gators to score 24 points in 28 minutes of the second half and have possession of the ball for more than 16 minutes more than Texas.

Heck, in the third quarter alone, the Longhorns had just 8 yards on six plays as Florida took complete control.

The Longhorn offense, which was anemic at best, scored 10 points on its first two series of the day and only a late touchdown with 4:21 left to play in the final 52 minutes of the game.

Asked if he felt the team is in disarray, Sarkisian said, "Disarray is probably not the word I'd use. Are they frustrated? Yes. … We had a hard time getting off the field. They were on the field a lot of the time, and then we weren't helping them offensively. We were bleeding out in the second half."

And it was a bloody mess.

The Gators went ahead for good 20-17 with 10:40 left to play on Patrick Durkin's 28-yard field goal and tacked on an 11-yard touchdown run by Jadan Baugh as Florida scored for the fourth time in five possessions to put this Texas season on life support.

After two straight losses to Missouri and South Carolina in which it gave up 83 points, Florida and its 110th-ranked defense rose up and dominated the Longhorns. The Gators surrendered just 17 points to the offense as well as a brilliant 63-yard punt return for a touchdown by Ryan Niblett. Texas did put up 10 points in its first 15 plays on Raleek Brown's 32-yard touchdown run and Gianni Spetic's 38-yard field goal.

After that, not much at all. When you snap the ball for only 50 plays, the fewest in Sarkisian's term here, it doesn't allow for much offense.

Texas, which hosts Ole Miss next Saturday night, now is in jeopardy of even falling out of the Top 25 although it's got much bigger problems than the rankings.

"I don't know how many times I need to say it," Sarkisian said. "We're going to evaluate everything from an offensive perspective. Part of that is play-calling."

And he does mean everything. Or should.

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This article originally published at Bench Arch Manning? Major changes needed for Texas after another unacceptable loss to Florida.