The Texas Longhorns are coming off a really strong season, despite what their 7-6 record may suggest. They lost in Week 2 to the Alabama Crimson Tide 20-19 in a game they should’ve won if not for horrible officiating. Texas also lost starting QB Quinn Ewers in that game to injury and for the next 4 games. Under backup QB Hudson Card, the Longhorns only lost one game (to Texas Tech in OT 37-34). Upon Ewers’ return, they lost 24-21 to Iowa State and 41-34 to Oklahoma State. A week later they rebounded and took down the Big 12 Champion Kansas State Wildcats 34-27 before taking another loss to National Championship Runner Up TCU 17-10. The Longhorns then went on a 2 game win streak before being taken down 27-20 by Washington in the Alamo Bowl. So what do all these losses have in common? Texas lost every game by a TD or less, which means that they are a play or two from being able to walk away with the win. Texas very well could’ve had a spot in the CFB Playoff. Who will be at the helm in 2023?

Here are the Longhorn’s Candidates:

• Redshirt Sophomore Quinn Ewers- C/O 2021 5 Star
• Redshirt Freshman Maalik Murphy- C/O 2022 4 Star
• Freshman Arch Manning- C/O 2023 5 Star

Quinn Ewers

Ewers seems to be the favorite to remain the starting QB at Texas. However, it is interesting to note that 4.5/6 of the Longhorn losses came under Ewers. Granted two of them were to the two teams who played in the Big 12 Championship, and one of which was to powerhouse Alabama. We both watched Texas offensive film at some point this draft season to scout a prospect and we were in pretty heavy agreement that Ewers has not lived up to the hype and his 1.0000 grade according to 247 Sports. Ewers had some relatively worrisome accuracy issues in 2022 that he needs to clean up before the 2023 season opener. However, theoretical growth could make him a much better prospect this year.

Although we have to note that the accuracy issues come almost near exclusively when targeting Xavier Worthy. Their chemistry is some of the worse we’ve seen, and we believe it is 75% Worthy’s fault. Worthy is not the prospect people believe he is(not at first glance at least), and AD Mitchell could do absolute wonders for him. 

Maalik Murphy

Murphy is the forgotten man in this highly touted QB room in Austin, Texas that includes two of the only 1.0000 graded QB recruits in recent memory. Murphy was a 4 Star QB in the class of 2022 and the 9th ranked QB. He redshirted his freshman season behind Ewers and Card, but is expecting to compete this year. We don’t know too much about Murphy because we didn’t really get to see him, but sometimes the most dangerous competitors are the ones forgotten about.

Arch Manning

Manning has to be one of the most controversial recruits in a very long time. Now granted we aren’t experts on, or follow HS football that closely, but we can’t remember the last time there was so much debate on a recruit. Many believe that Manning was only the No.1 recruit and a 1.0000 graded recruit because of his name. There is a lot of noise that, had his name been Arch Smith or Arch Davis, he would be nowhere near ranked the way he was.

Manning’s spring game did not live up to the hype. His throws were hit or miss, but the most alarming aspect was his arm strength. Granted, neither Peyton nor Eli ever relied on cannons to be successful, but Arch was notably below average in our opinion. Despite the controversy of his recruitment rank and spring game, he is only 18. He has so much potential to grow and there is a chance he even redshirts this year to bulk up and develop. We would like to note though that Arch has lost his student ID at least twice now, which makes us wonder how they are going to develop his pocket awareness. *Ba dum tss*

Our Prediction:

When Texas opens up against Rice on September 2, we believe it will be Quinn Ewers at the helm. Ewers was recruited by Sarkisian in his first year at Texas to be his guy. He ended up going to Ohio State for NIL money since Texas wasn’t part of NIL in 2021… or that’s the story that went around at least. He redshirted there before transferring to Texas where it seemed like he planned on playing all along. Ewers is now in year 2 of the Sarkisian system, and should be able to run it better than last year. However, as we stated earlier, Ewers did have some accuracy issues last year. Texas is playing a very strong schedule this year and will be playing some of the new Big 12 teams this year(BYU and Houston), plus Bama in Tuscaloosa, and the heavy hitters in the Big 12(TCU, Kansas State). If Ewers and/or the Longhorns begin to struggle we believe his job could be up for grabs. We don’t think Ewers is considered an untouchable starting QB, but at the same time could experience a ton of growth. Texas has one of the best groups of offensive weapons in CFB:

• Xavier Worthy
• AD Mitchell
• Jordan Whittington
• Isaiah Neyor
• Johntay Cook
• Ja’Tavion Sanders
• CJ Baxter

If Ewers can’t succeed with them they will look for someone who can. Arch and Murphy will probably battle for QB2 duties in the summer, but should be ready given Ewers struggles or gets hurt again.