Joel Klatt got to watch live on the call as No. 1 Texaslost toNo. 3 Ohio State in Columbus on Saturday. So, with a perspective having seen it in person, Klatt isn’t at all concerned about the Longhorns’ struggles, and, with that, any of the struggles of QB Arch Manning either.
Klatt broke down the 14-7 loss for Texas to Ohio State during his show on Monday, including all the questions he has gotten since about Manning’s poor play in that opener. As he has told several people since, like those on his flight home, Klatt expects that team and their new starter to be alright in the end.
“So, what do we actually think? I’m on the plane going back to Houston. I was connecting through Houston to get back home to Southern California on Saturday night, so a lot of Texas fans on that flight. And, we all get on the flight and every single person that walked by me that had a burnt orange shirt on was like, ‘Well, what’d you think of Arch? What’d you think of Arch? What’d you think of Arch?’. Here’s what I think of Arch and his performance – relax. Relax,” said Klatt. “He’s going to be just fine. Take the name off his back. Take the expectations down a couple of notches. He will be just fine.”
The biggest reason why he thought that was because of the improvement that Manning had in his play by the fourth quarter. There’s no hiding the poor three quarters he played first, but Klatt kept an outlook on what he saw late with Manning too when he was 8-16 for 132 yards and his lone touchdown throw.
“They got it going late in that game. They made some tremendous plays against a great defense in order to get themself back in a game to the point where they had the ball driving to tie it in a one-possession game, at Ohio State against the defending national champions and a defense that might finish at one, two, three in the country in total defense. So, when you just give it that perspective and just frame it a little bit differently, you start to think to yourself, like, Texas is going to be just fine. Arch is going to be just fine.”
Another reason was that Klatt didn’t think the Longhorns played with the best game plan around Arch. It didn’t have him in the best positions, as he expects that he’ll only be in better ones moving forward as he develops further under Steve Sarkisian.
“I didn’t think the game plan was great,” Klatt noted. “If Sark goes back to the drawing board, he’s probably going to say, ‘You know what? I didn’t give him enough motion and eye candy in order to distort the defense’s responsibilities’. Because, really, when it comes down to offensive play-calling, what you want to do is you want to put defenders in stress, and I didn’t think the defenders for Ohio State were under duress or under much stress the entire day. The people under stress was Texas, because of the distortions and the manipulations that Ohio State’s defense was using. That’ll be fixed. Sark is too good as an offensive play designer and caller.”
“Arch is a heck of a player,” said Klatt. “You saw glimpses of that, and he will learn from those mistakes.”
There’s plenty of reason for some of the concerns considering how Manning started out on Saturday. Still, with that being just game one for him and the team around him, Klatt isn’t worried one bit when it comes to the Longhorns or when it comes to Manning coming off their opening loss.
“I’m just telling you right now – zero panic for Arch Manning and the Texas Longhorns. Zero. They are going to be just fine,” said Klatt. “Did he play great? No. Did he throw the ball accurately? No. Did he make a lot of poor decisions? Yes. Am I worried? Absolutely not. Texas is going to be just fine.”
“Am I worried about Texas? No. Am I worried about Arch? No,” Klatt said. “They’re both going to be just fine.”