AUSTIN, Texas — Quinn Ewers’ mullet is gone. The big arm is still very much there.
So is the competition that comes with the big name of Manning behind it.
The Texas Longhorns will wrap up another phase of offseason battles Saturday with their Orange-White spring game. It will provide the public’s first look at the biggest quarterback competition in the Big 12, the one between Ewers, midyear enrollee Arch Manning of the famed football family, and second-year reserve Maalik Murphy, a top recruit who spent his 2022 freshman season on the sideline.
Steve Sarkisian, entering his third season as head coach of the Longhorns, has revealed little about the competition, but he noted this week that Ewers starting 10 games for Texas in 2022 — he appeared in one game for Ohio State in 2021, his lone season with the Buckeyes — has given the Lone Star State native an edge so far.
“Quinn, naturally, is kind of a step ahead of everybody with his experience that he has. I think that we’re now getting a full dose of Maalik, feel good about him. And, I think Arch, you know 13 practices into college football, is performing well,” Sarkisian said. “I feel very comfortable about where we’re at. I feel good about it.”
Ewers passed for 2,177 yards and 15 touchdowns with six interceptions last season. He missed two games with an injury and struggled badly at times, but he finished strong with 116 consecutive passes without an interception to help the Lonhorns go 8-5.
And when the season was finished, Ewers cut the golden locks of his signature mullet hairstyle that flowed out of the back of his helmet. Some saw it as a sign Ewers of getting more serious and sharpening his game with Manning coming to campus.
Sarkisian sees an overall maturity blooming in Ewers.
“One thing we had talked about is sometimes your appearance/perception precedes you, and then you almost have to overcome yourself,” Sarkisian said when spring drills started. “So all of a sudden now the guy gets a haircut and he cleans his beard up a little bit. And everyone thinks Quinn’s real serious right now. But that’s human nature, right?”
Manning’s first spring with the Longhorns promised to be a whirlwind as soon as the prep star from New Orleans landed on campus as one of the hottest recruits in the country. With a family connection to three former NFL quarterbacks — he is the grandson of Archie and a nephew of Eli and Peyton — he carries the burden of astronomical expectations at Texas, which along with Oklahoma will join the Southeastern Conference ahead of the 2024 season.
A Manning can’t help but be great, right?
“He’s a kid. He’s a college kid,” Sarkisian said, noting Manning lost his student ID twice in a week. “I think so many times you see the Manning name, and you think he’s this perfect — in a box, like nothing’s wrong with him. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with him, but he’s still a kid. I love that about him.”
Sarkisian said all positions would be open when practice started, including quarterback.
“Quinn has an entire year of a head start, but I don’t want to hold Arch back,” Sarkisian said of Cooper Manning’s son. “I want to see how far he can take this thing and what it can look like.”
And along came Murphy, who forced his way into the conversation about the competition.
One of the nation’s top recruits out of California two years ago, he was No. 3 on the Longhorns’ depth chart last season behind Ewers and Hudson Card and didn’t play. His development was hindered by nagging injuries that started in high school and continued into the early part of spring drills.
Murphy returned with a flourish, though, and may have even pushed his way to the No. 2 spot.
“Ultimately, can Maalik push Quinn? Of course he can,” Sarkisian said. “How far can he take it? Quinn’s job is to keep raising his level of play so he can’t catch him. And that should be at every position across the board.”