Late Saturday, it was unclear just how long Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers could be sidelined with a strained oblique or strained abdomen injury suffered against UTSA.

But the message was clear from the head coach to the veterans and all the way down. Backups like redshirt freshman Arch Manning are expected to be ready when their number is called.

“The moment’s not too big for him,” Sarkisian said. “I don’t feel handcuffed in any way.”

Manning certainly delivered in a 56-7 win over UTSA. He came into the game in the second quarter and accounted for five touchdowns, throwing for four scores and running straight down the middle for a blazing 67-yard score.

“He’s a calm guy that gets excited when he does good things,” Sarkisian said.

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It was the longest touchdown run by a quarterback since Vince Young ripped off an 80-yarder against Oklahoma State in 2005.

“If you take Arch, for example, he prepares like a starter,” senior center Jake Majors said. “That’s what every guy in this program does. Whenever you go throughout the week, you prepare like a starter. When your number is called, we expect no drop off.”

Sarkisian has been mapping out Manning’s progression for months, if not years. Last season, Ewers was the clear-cut starter while Manning, then a freshman, battled redshirt freshman Maalik Murphy for the second spot. When the offseason arrived, Murphy transferred to Duke, and Manning became the undisputed backup.

Manning had a huge day during the Orange-White spring game. Looking back now, the coach points out there was a reason why Manning got so much playing time then. It was to prepare Manning for now.

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“So when we went into spring ball, we thought, OK, Quinn’s a starter, but we’ve got to make sure Arch is ready to play,” Sarkisian said. “And you never know when that can happen.

“You go back to the spring game. That was the reasoning behind we did. What we did is, you know, Arch basically played the whole game with the (No. 1) offense, and Trey (Owens) played the whole game with the (No. 2) offense just to get them some experience.”

“We take a lot of pride in our practices and being competitive and going good-on-good, things of that nature, to try to make as many game-like situations as we can,” Sarkisian continued. “But there’s nothing like being in the game and playing in front of 105,000 people is not the easiest thing to do.”

Manning said his open-field move to juke the UTSA safety got him going. “Felt good, having a lot of adrenalin,” Manning said. “Don’t know if I’ve run that fast in a while.”

Texas fans just want him to keep it going next week against Louisiana-Monroe, if Ewers is still unavailable, or whenever the next opportunity may be.