Texas backup QB Arch Manning compared to three-time Super Bowl MVP, Longhorns’ starter Quinn Ewers compared to current college football player by Sam Pittman

Arkansas head football coach Sam Pittman may have been onto something when he compared Texas’s backup QB, Arch Manning, to the Kansas City Chiefs' three-time MVP-winner, Patrick Mahomes, and the Longhorns’ starter, Quinn Ewers, to Ole Miss’s Jaxson Dart.

“With Manning, I saw him make a play running to his left that they would have shown on ‘SportsCenter’ if (Patrick) Mahomes did it," Pittman said in the lead-up to Longhorns-Razorbacks in Fayetteville (h/t On SI). "The touch on that pass and the accuracy running to his left was incredible."

“(Ewers has) The confidence of Jaxson Dart, you know, that type of confidence," Pittman later added. "I think he has great belief in his O-line. You can just feel it. You can feel it on the field. And his wideouts are incredible. Running backs used as wideouts on bubble screens... I think he has a lot of talent around him, but I think he has a lot, a lot of confidence. Probably has since he was a young man.”

Pittman may have been attempting to send some rat poison to the Longhorns ahead of a pivotal matchup for his long-term job security. Beat Texas and the idea of getting rid of Pittman would disappear for at least another year. Perform like many expect them to as a multi-score underdog and the final two games against Lousiana Tech and Missouri become even more urgent.

College football’s highest-paid star believes Longhorns have clear-cut answer in Texas’s QB battle

Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders claimed that Ewers is the top option in the Longhorns’ QB room. The “Grown QB” also believes Manning is a little too green to be relied on by Texas right now on his “2Legendary” podcast.

"I think for Quinn, the only difference was that they were trying to change it up a little bit to spark something, but I feel like it was going to go back to Quinn anyway," Sanders said.

"I think it's tough putting Arch in this situation," Shedeur prefaced before saying, "Especially when momentum isn't on your side. It's really hard to ask a freshman player to do that.

"I mean, Arch is still young. He has a lot of time to grow and succeed, I would say."

Pittman may believe Arch’s ceiling is endless, but he will only see Texas’s backup in action if Ewers does his job and rocks a Razorback defense that may be in over their heads in Week 12.