The Texas Longhorns held their first practice of the year on Monday. After it was over, head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke with the media and confirmed that Freshman quarterback Arch Manning will compete with Quinn Ewers for the right to be the starting quarterback this coming season.
Sarkisian admitted that Ewers has a head start but also said he doesn’t want to hold Manning back, per Paul Myerberg at USA TODAY.
“I’m more focused on is, is each guy focusing on what they need to do to develop to be the best player that they can be?” Quinn has an entire year of a head start, but I don’t want to hold Arch back. I want to see how far he can take this thing and what it can look like.”
Manning was the No. 1 overall ranked recruit in the class of 2023. In his senior season at Isidore Newman (La.), he posted 2,270 passing yards, 34 touchdowns and just two interceptions. While he didn’t do much running in 2022, Manning is still a dual-threat QB who scored 19 total touchdowns as a rusher in his four-year high school career.
As for Ewers, he was also the top recruit in his class (2021) coming out of Southlake Carroll (Texas). After sitting behind CJ Stroud for a season at Ohio State, he transferred to Texas and started 10 gamestotaling 2,177 passing yards, 15 touchdowns and six interceptions.
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Story originally appeared on High School Sports