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Dave Wilson
AUSTIN, Texas — Arch Manning didn’t need to watch the tape to know he wasn’t good enough on Saturday in No. 1 Texas‘ 14-7 loss to No. 3 Ohio State. But he said he watched it all — the good, the bad and the ugly — Monday and is ready to move forward.
Manning struggled in his first road start, as well as his first start against a ranked team, going 17-of-30 for 170 yards with a touchdown and an interception against the defending national champion Buckeyes in Columbus.
“I hold myself to a high standard,” Manning said on Monday. “I’ve got to play better, got to lead more, got to get our guys to play well around me and ultimately I wasn’t good enough.”
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian admitted he was frustrated after the first half, in which the Longhorns had only 79 yards of offense and averaged 3 yards per play. Sarkisian said at halftime he had a conversation with Manning to reiterate that the game wasn’t totally on him, something he experienced as a quarterback himself.
“I think one thing that happened a little bit to Arch is the game can mount on you, and you feel like, oh man, we’re not scoring, or I missed a read or I missed a throw,” Sarkisian said. “When in reality you look at the scoreboard, it’s still 0-0. This game, it was a very tight game. I don’t think he needed to press, and I think he’ll learn that as we go, especially [because] he’s fortunate right now. He’s got a great defense on the other side of the ball.”
Manning said he settled in more in the second half as a result and Texas managed 260 yards of offense in the second half. “I realized we’ve got to go start making plays and I let it rip a little more,” Manning he. “I’ve got to start that sooner.”
But the Longhorns still came away with only seven points, which is where Sarkisian said most of his disappointment came from. He said there were times he thought Manning’s mechanics faltered, including a key third-down misfire to Ryan Wingo in the fourth quarter down 14-7, when Manning’s arm angle dropped and the pass was high and behind Wingo, who couldn’t reel it in at the Ohio State 46. On the next play, Manning had to rush a throw to tight end Jack Endrieswho was tackled short of the first down and the Longhorns turned the ball over on downs.
Against a defense like the Buckeyes’, Sarkisian said, those little details make a big difference when you’re throwing into tight coverage.
“There were a couple times where we had some crossing routes where I didn’t feel like he brought his feet to where he wanted to throw the ball, which in turn forced kind of a little bit more of a sidearm delivery, which isn’t his style of throwing,” Sarkisian said. “Part of that is just finding that comfort level of trust with receivers in real games — not in practice, not against the scout team, but in a real game — against a good defense because the windows get small against good defenses like that. So definitely lesson learned on that stuff.”
The Longhorns return home and face San Jose State on Saturday (noon ET, ABC), and are 36.5-point favorites, according to ESPN BET. Sarkisian said he has a lot of respect for Spartans coach Ken Niumatalolo, the former Navy coach, and expects SJSU to throw the ball all over the field Saturday.
Manning said the focus over the next three weeks of nonconference play will be on themselves, with UTEP and Sam Houston following before opening SEC play against Florida.
“I’m determined,” Manning said. “I think this is going to motivate me to play better and that’s what we need to win.”
