Kirby Smart unfazed by Quinn Ewers & Arch Manning challenge ahead of Texas clash: "Not really different style QBs"

The Texas Longhorns welcomed back quarterback Quinn Ewers for their Week 7 clash against Red River rivals, the Oklahoma Sooners. The quarterback showed his clash registering 199 yards resulting in two touchdowns and one interception in the one-sided 34-3 demolition job.

Ahead of the Longhorns' Week 8 clash against coach Kirby Smart's Georgia Bulldogs, the spotlight is firmly on the two quarterbacks, Ewers and Carson Beck, who are considered the premier QBs in college football.

During his weekly news conference, Smart addressed the elephant in the room. The Quinn Ewers versus Arch Manning debate has continually reared its head throughout the season as the backup showed incredible maturity while deputizing for the injured QB1.

“It doesn’t change how we prepare,” Smart said. “They’re (Ewers & Manning) not really different style quarterbacks. They’re both really good. I’ll say this. You watch the games that Arch played — he played really well. He did some really good things.

"Look at his numbers. He played and he comes out the first couple plays against Mississippi State ripping it and firing it in his first SEC play and played really good."

Quinn Ewers already received the backing of Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian during his weekly news conference that he would hog the majority of the playing time over Arch Manning.

"I never liked it as a starter when backups would come in for even a single play," Sarkisian said. "The rhythm of the game is important, and that's something I don't want to disrupt. He's (Arch Manning) learning, and that's what's most important right now. His growth since joining us has been huge, and I think that's the key for him."

Quinn Ewers compared to Carson Beck

During his weekly news conference, Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart compared Quinn Ewers and Carson Beck in terms of their pedigree and experience in college football.

"The games (Ewers) has played in, there (are similarities to Beck) in terms of knowledge, understanding of their offense, protections," Smart said.

"It doesn’t seem pressure affects him much. He seems like he has really good composure … they both have the ability, if something goes wrong, to get you out of a bad play, and typically avoid catastrophes. That’s what both quarterbacks do and (those are) the similarities that they seem to have.”

Quinn Ewers and Carson Beck play for perhaps the two programs expected to battle for the national championship and are both in the hunt for the Heisman Trophy ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft. The game on Saturday could be a huge tie-breaker in how they are perceived.