Manning taking all backup QB reps for Longhorns
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Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer
NEW ORLEANS — Texas quarterback Arch Manning has taken all the reps as the backup quarterback during practice for the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl, the first time this season he heads into a game as the No. 2 player behind starter Quinn Ewers.
Manning, who arrived at Texas for his freshman season as the most heralded quarterback in the country, was elevated to the backup spot after Maalik Murphy announced he was entering the transfer portal. Murphy has since announced he plans to transfer to Duke.
“When you get into the season, you don’t always have the opportunity to get everybody the amount of reps that you would like to. So I think that’s the biggest change for him,” Texas offensive coordinator Kyle Flood said Friday during media availability, the first time he has addressed the personnel change.
“We’ve got a ton of confidence in Arch,” Flood continued. “I think his progression throughout the year has been excellent. He’s a real student of the game, and he’s approached it like that from the very beginning. So I think probably the best thing for him and for us as a team was that when that happened, it was very easy for him to just continue to do what he was doing, because he never approached it like he was the third quarterback or the backup quarterback. He approaches everything like he’s the starting quarterback. I think that’s the key when you’re in a reserve role of being ready when you’re called upon.”
The 6-foot-4, 212-pound Manning also happens to be preparing for a game in his native New Orleans. Manning played at Isidore Newman High School and is the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning. His father, Cooper Manning, played wide receiver at Ole Miss.
Arch Manning was the No. 2 overall prospect in the ESPN300 class of 2023 and arrived as an early enrollee in January. Though there were expectations placed on him right from the start, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian announced after the spring game that Ewers would be the starter for this season.
When Ewers hurt his right shoulder against Houston in October, it was Murphy who started in his place the next two games before Ewers returned. Still, coaches and teammates said Manning kept growing and getting better as he watched from the sideline. He played in one game this season, the regular-season finale against Texas Tech, going 2-of-5 for 30 yards, with seven yards rushing.
“You can just tell that he wants to learn as much as he can,” Ewers said. “He’s always asking questions, just trying to do his best. “I think he understands the opportunity he has in front of him, and he’s definitely not going to waste it.”
Whether Manning gets into another game this season or not, there already are questions about what the quarterback room will look like at Texas headed into 2024. Ewers reiterated on Friday he has not made a decision about whether he will return for a fourth season or enter the NFL draft. He has until Jan. 15 to make a decision.
“Just trying to win a national championship right now, not really thinking about that,” Ewers said.
Behind Ewers, himself one of the top quarterback prospects out of high school, Texas has reached its first CFP. But the last time Texas played for a national championship, in January 2010 against Alabama, starter Colt McCoy got hurt on the second series and backup Garrett Gilbert played the rest of the game. Alabama won 37-21.
While nobody expects Ewers to go down, there’s a reason the backup quarterback has to always be ready. Texas tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders said if Manning was pressed into action in the playoffs, it would take a collective effort to help him get comfortable.
“I think it would take him a little bit to get settled in,” Sanders said. “First start, and then in a College Football Playoff game. There’s so much on the line. I definitely think as a team, we would just have to implement the confidence in him, tell him we got you, just go and throw it. So I think if he was to play in the game, he would be ready.”
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Adam Rittenberg
BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he feels “healthy and vibrant” after returning to the field for preseason practices after undergoing surgery to remove his bladder after a cancerous tumor was found.
Sanders, 57, said he has been walking at least a mile around campus following Colorado’s practices, which began last week. He was away from the team for the late spring and early summer following the surgery in May. Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Cancer Center, said July 30 that Sanders, who lost about 25 pounds during his recovery, is “cured of cancer.”
“I’m healthy, I’m vibrant, I’m my old self,” Sanders said. “I’m loving life right now. I’m trying my best to live to the fullest, considering what transpired.”
Sanders credited Colorado’s assistant coaches and support staff for overseeing the program during his absence. The Pro Football Hall of Famer enters his third season as Buffaloes coach this fall.
“They’ve given me tremendous comfort,” Sanders said. “I never had to call 100 times and check on the house, because I felt like the house is going to be OK. That’s why you try your best to hire correct, so you don’t have to check on the house night and day. They did a good job, especially strength and conditioning.”
Colorado improved from four to nine wins in Sanders’ second season, but the team loses Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, the No. 2 pick in April’s NFL draft, as well as record-setting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes have an influx of new players, including quarterbacks Kaidon Salter and Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, who are competing for the starting job, as well as new staff members such as Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who is coaching the Buffaloes’ running backs.
Despite the changes and his own health challenges, Deion Sanders expects Colorado to continue ascending. The Buffaloes open the season Aug. 29 when they host Georgia Tech.
“The next phase is we’re going to win differently, but we’re going to win,” Sanders said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the Hail Mary’s at the end of the game, but it’s going to be hell during the game, because we want to be physical and we want to run the heck out of the football.”
Sanders said it will feel “a little weird, a little strange” to not be coaching Shedeur when the quarterback starts his first NFL preseason game for the Cleveland Browns on Friday night at Carolina. Deion Sanders said he and Shedeur had spoken several times Friday morning. Despite being projected as a top quarterback in the draft, Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round.
“A lot of people are approaching it like a preseason game, he’s approaching like a game, and that’s how he’s always approached everything, to prepare and approach it like this is it,” Deion Sanders said. “He’s thankful and appreciative of the opportunity. He don’t get covered in, you know, all the rhetoric in the media.
“Some of the stuff is just ignorant. Some of it is really adolescent, he far surpasses that, and I can’t wait to see him play.”
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Adam Rittenberg
LSU starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier aggravated the patellar tendinitis he has been dealing with in his knee but will not miss any significant time, coach Brian Kelly said Friday.
Kelly dropped in ahead of a news conference Friday with offensive coordinator Joe Sloan to tell reporters that Nussmeier did not suffer a severe knee injury or even a new one. According to Kelly, Nussmeier has chronic tendinitis in his knee and “probably just planted the wrong way” during Wednesday’s practice.
Nussmeier ranked fifth nationally in passing yards (4,052) last season, his first as LSU’s starter, and projects as an NFL first-round draft pick in 2026.
“It’s not torn, there’s no fraying, there’s none of that,” Kelly said. “This is preexisting. … There’s nothing to really see on film with it, but it pissed it off. He aggravated it a little bit, but he’s good to go.”
Kelly said Nussmeier’s injury ranks 1.5 out of 10 in terms of severity. Asked whether it’s the right or left knee, Kelly said he didn’t know, adding, “It’s not a serious injury. Guys are dealing with tendinitis virtually every day in life.”
LSU opens the season Aug. 30 at Clemson.
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