Paul Finebaum Makes Definitive Statement on Texas' Quinn Ewers-Arch Manning Controversy

With No. 1 Texas utterly scrambled at home against No. 5 Georgia on Saturday afternoon in Austin, Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian did not seem to have all that many buttons left to push.

Trailing, 20-0, in the second quarter, Sarkisian turned to sophomore quarterback Arch Manning, pulling out star Quinn Ewers to do so. Manning had shown himself to be a cool-headed leader in the three games he spent filling in for Ewers when he had a stomach injury, and Sarkisian felt Ewers needed a breather.

In went Manning, and the results were not pretty: one punt after five plays, and one strip-sack fumble by Manning, which Georgia recovered.

The Longhorns would rally to get within one score, at 23-15, but utlimately the Bulldogs pulled away for a 30-15 win. After the game, Sarkisian said that Ewers would remain the starter going forward.

Given Manning's struggles in the two series in which he played, that appears to be an easy call. On ESPN's SportsCenter, analyst Trevor Matich agreed with Sarkisian's decision, saying, "In order for Texas to get where they want to go, they need Ewers’ experience."

The network's college football guru, Paul Finebaum, agreed.

"One thing that Sark did, he ended that controversy before it began," Finebaum said. "It’s lingering out there, but Arch did very little last night to give the masses or anyone else, especially Sark, a reason to go."

Texas now falls to 6-1 on the year but will attempt to right the ship in Week 8 against Vanderbilt, a team that was expected to be a cakewalk for SEC powerhouses. But the Commodores upset Alabama in Week 5, and have won three straight games to push their record to 5-2.

"I was about to make a joke about what Texas has next—hey, they have Vanderbilt and they can work all their little problems out. But that’s not as easy as it sounds based on what Vanderbilt did a couple weeks ago to Alabama," Finebaum said.

Related: College Football Fans Are Calling For Arch Manning To Replace Quinn Ewers