Urban Meyer revealed how Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian reached the conclusion to pull Quinn Ewers in favor of Arch Manning during the Longhorns’ 30-15 loss to Georgia on October 19: well in advance with plenty of practice film to support what was a preplanned decision.
“I think these discussions are had well in advance. I mean, it’s life in the big city,” Meyer said on The Triple Option podcast. “Whether you’re a right guard, quarterback, safety, or corner, if you are not playing well in places like Texas, Ohio State, Alabama, there’s quality people behind you. If Mark Ingram’s not playing good, you got a cat behind him, he’s going in. I would tell the quarterback the same thing and I would tell the team the same thing.
“The media will make it bigger than it is in locker room, if you’re not performing well as a punter, I’m gonna take you out and put the other putter in and I explain that. Those are conversations had well before the first half of the Georgia game. I think that’s a bigger story for us and for Austin news stations or whatever. It is what it is.”
Urban Meyer believes Georgia surpassed Texas as title favorites after blowout win
Meyer believes the Bulldogs so thoroughly picked apart the Longhorns at DKR Stadium that the former national championship coach at Florida and Ohio State tabbed Georgia the new team to beat in college football.
“I was on the Texas bandwagon for a while, that was the most dominant performance I’ve seen in quite a while,” Meyer prefaced before saying, “And I know Alabama‘s was the first half (against Georgia) and all that, but this one at Texas against what I thought (was) the legitimate number one team in a country and they just ripped them apart.”.
Georgia showed fight in coming back from a 28-point lead to nearly stun Alabama in the fourth quarter of their 41-34 instant classic. That fight carried over into dominant wins over Auburn, Mississippi State, and Texas.
At this point, if the Dawgs don’t run into the Crimson Tide, there’s no reason to believe they’ll be stopped by anyone else. Kirby Smart can’t seem to figure out his former team, but the rest of the country hasn’t created any cracks in Georgia’s foundation.