Texas football: Steve Sarkisian doesn't rule out benching Arch Manning after Florida loss

At the beginning of this season, Arch Manning was considered a Heisman Trophy front-runner and one of the top quarterbacks in the country. But after the second-year starter again struggled in Texas football's 27-24 loss at home to unranked Florida on Saturday, is it time for a change?

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian wouldn't rule it out after the game. After the stunning setback , Sarkisian was asked if he had thought about making a change at quarterback. Sarkisian answered, "I just felt like we didn't play good offensive football and we're not playing great offensive football right now. So everything is going to be evaluated."

Does the evaluation of everything include Manning's job status?

"Everything means everything," Sarkisian bluntly stated.

Sarkisian was later again asked about Manning's performance. He said there was plenty of blame to go around for Saturday's loss. As a team, Texas collected 272 yards and had just four drives go longer than five plays. In the third quarter, UT gained eight yards while running four plays.

"It'd be easy for me to say, 'Hey, Arch was the problem today.' Was Arch perfect? No, but nobody was perfect on offense today," Sarkisian said. "We took turns today, and that's where I have to look at every aspect of what we're doing because if it was one person, it'd be easy. Yeah, change one guy and everything's going to be great. Well, I don't think that that was all the issue today. Could he have been better? No doubt about it. But there's some other issues that need to be addressed."

Texas, No. 7 in the Associated Press poll, will surely slip when the new rankings are released Sunday. Texas (4-2, 1-2) will attempt to snap its two-game losing streak next week at home against Ole Miss.

Arch Manning, Texas offense have surprising struggles against Florida

Against a Florida secondary that ranked last in the SEC (and 131st among 138 FBS-level teams) in passing yardage by allowing 268.7 yards per game, Manning threw for just 173 yards and a touchdown while completing 14 of his 20 passes. A 62-yard connection with Emmett Mosley V while Texas was trailing by 10 points in the fourth quarter accounted for around 35% of Manning's yardage total.

Manning didn't throw an interception, but he did lose a costly fumble while taking a sack on UT's final drive and he was dropped for a loss on another fourth-down attempt in the fourth quarter. Last week, Manning threw two interceptions in the fourth quarter that led to 10 points in a 27-24 loss to Oklahoma .

"We talk about winning the fourth quarter, and we didn't do that today," Manning said. "Moving forward, we've got to win the fourth."

When told afterward about Sarkisian's evaluation comment, Manning said "everyone's evaluated every week. That's how it is at a school like this. Elite players, so everyone's got to get better, and it starts with me."

Through six games, Manning has thrown for 1,295 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions while completing 63.9% of his passes. He's leading an offense that has yet to score more than 24 points against a Power Four defense.

Texas has not wholly benched its starting quarterback for a non-injury reason since Sarkisian's first season in 2021 when Casey Thompson replaced Hudson Card after a disastrous September defeat at Arkansas. Behind Manning on the Texas depth chart are sophomore KJ Lacey and freshman Dia Bell . Both were highly-rated recruits, but Lacey has thrown only nine passes in his college career while Bell has yet to get into a game at Texas.