Texas has tumbled down the rankings after back-to-back losses to unranked opponents, which have put Arch Manning under the microscope. However, former LSU coach Brian Kelly, who was fired in October 2025, believes the blame should extend beyond the quarterback. Rather than putting all the pressure on Manning and blaming him when things went south, Kelly pointed fingers at head coach Steve Sarkisian’s play-calling. In his view, the responsibility for the Longhorns’ offensive struggles lies with the man calling the shots.

“It’s on the play caller,” Kelly said on College Football Radio on October 22. “I think the play caller takes a lot of the responsibility. Look, he’s your quarterback. They’re not going back. I mean, they’re not going to bench him unless there’s just a total meltdown.”

The Longhorns have been the talk of the town after poor performances against Oklahoma and Florida. Texas gained only 272 yards against Florida and converted just two of its 10 third-down attempts into first downs. The offense managed only eight yards on six plays in the entire third quarter, an average of roughly 1.3 yards per play, which shows how badly it stalled.

Manning struggled throughout the game. One particularly telling moment came on a fourth-quarter third-down play, when he was sacked for a one-yard loss. Sarkisian later admitted he had made the wrong call and acknowledged that it put Manning in a difficult position.

“I had a crappy call and the rollout with Arch,” he told the reporters on Monday. “I didn’t love that the official stood over the ball, but that was a crummy call. I wish I had called something better for him in that situation. If we had won the game or lost the game, I’d have still come up here and told you that was a crummy call.

It all comes down to this: Sarkisian is not making the most of Manning’s abilities because he is trying to run his preferred system instead of adapting it to his quarterback. When Quinn Ewers led the offense, Sarkisian used a variety of plays to keep defenses guessing.

Now he appears to be taking a different approach, one that may overprotect Manning at the expense of his effectiveness on the field. He isn’t using Manning’s ability to run and make explosive plays, which makes the offense predictable.

Kelly believes Sarkisian needs to meet Manning halfway by adapting the offense to suit him well because the quarterback isn’t going to be benched anytime soon. His struggles may not be solely a quarterback problem. To shift the focus toward Sarkisian’s play-calling, Kelly pointed to Josh Heupel, who has run an offense with young quarterbacks in Tennessee.

“Look, Josh Heupel is doing it at Tennessee, playing great defense and running the football, and he’s played two redshirt freshman quarterbacks. And so you can’t tell me that you can’t fit this offense to Arch Manning, and maybe there has to be a meeting in the middle there,” Kelly added.

The Vols are 6-1 so far, with freshman QB Faizon Brandon leading the offense before injuring his shoulder in late September. They have their own ups and downs to deal with, but Heupel has built a good defense and a running game to help take the pressure off Brandon.

We saw a glimpse of it when the Vols took over Auburn on October 3. The coaching staff benched Brandon after he struggled to make plays and turned to redshirt freshman George MacIntyre late in the second quarter. The decision paid off, thanks largely to the RBs. DeSean Bishop rushed for 220 yards and three touchdowns, lifting the Vols to a 24-14 home win.

The takeaway for Sarkisian is clear: shift some burden off his QB and use all the pieces of offense and defense if they want to reach the CFPs.

The post Fired Brian Kelly Points Finger at Steve Sarkisian, Defending Arch Manning Amid Texas’ Misery: “It’s on the Play Caller” appeared first on EssentiallySports. Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.