The time for locker room political correctness is over, and it’s time for Texas quarterback Arch Manning to start against Clemson in the College Football Playoffs.

That’s how The Athletic’s Damien Harris sees it, anyway.

Harris, David Ubben and Chris Vannini broke down the Texas-Clemson matchup on their “Until Saturday” podcast. Harris and Ubben discussed the various body language both Manning and starter Quinn Ewers showed in recent games and their teammates’ reactions to various plays against Texas A&M and Georgia in the SEC championship.

“I’ve been on the opposite of this all year long, but as of right now today, It’s time for Arch Manning to be the starting quarterback at the University of Texas,” Harris said. “It has been Quinn’s team all year. Listen, I wanna start this guy.”

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Steve Sarkisian bristles over Quinn Ewers-Arch Manning discussion as Longhorns head into College Football Playoffs

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Harris then showed a clip taken from the sideline of the Texas A&M game after Manning scored on a sizzling 15-yard touchdown run. Manning is mobbed by teammates and celebrated as the excited quarterback yells into the camera “We here!”

“I don’t see this Texas team surround Quinn Ewers like that,” Harris said. “All year long, it’s been a conversation that we’ve been having, because it’s been kind of unfair. Well, you’re at the point in the season where it doesn’t really matter anymore. We’re talking about winning a college football championship here.

“If I’m Steve Sarkisian going into College Football Playoffs, not even necessarily worried about this game against Clemson, but if I really want to shock the world and pull out a move that I think can be our trump card the rest of the way, I put Arch Manning in there, and I let him just handle the reins and see what happens.”

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Ubben compared that moment to one in the SEC championship where Ewers threw an interception late in the fourth quarter. “Nobody anywhere near him,” Ubben said.

“I would have liked to have seen some offensive lineman or receiver go over, be like, hey, we’re gonna get the ball back. We’re gonna go score. We’re gonna go win this game,” Ubben said. “I didn’t really see a whole lot of that from Quinn or from any of his teammates.

“So the juice factor you might be on to something.”

For his part, Sarkisian went on record on Thursday and told Rich Eisen what he really thinks about all the outside noise regarding the Texas quarterback situation.

“I feel really good about our opportunity to go out and compete for a national championship,” Sarkisian said on the Rich Eisen Show, “so I’m really not one to kind of buy into the opinions of others, or the criticism of others, that I would never ask for advice from.”