No Quinn Ewers? No problem for Texas. At least on Saturday. 

The top-ranked Longhorns moved to 4-0 with a 51-3 win over Louisiana Monroe in Austin Saturday night. With Ewers on the shelf after suffering an injury in last weekend’s win over UTSA, former blue-chip quarterback Arch Manning made the first start of his collegiate career. There were some bumps, but Manning operated well and flashed the promise that has made him the most talked-about backup in college football.

Here are 3 takeaways from the game.

Manning starts, Manning shines

When Manning stepped into the UTSA game cold to replace the injured Ewers in Week 3, he needed no time at all to get up to speed. He threw a touchdown on his first pass and went on to account for 223 passing yards, 53 rushing yards, and 5 total touchdowns. He completed his final 6 passes in the game and had people talking all week about what Texas could be if it had to lean on Manning for an extended period of time.

When you have arguably the most famous last name in quarterbacking history, pressure is nothing new. But Manning was always going to have “first start” jitters. He missed his first pass. He was picked off on his fourth pass.

But Manning came right back from that mistake and dropped a dime to Isaiah Bond.

The Longhorns scored their first points of the game 4 plays later.

Manning was picked off again in the second quarter. It came amid a stretch of 6 straight incompletions. After opening 8-for-12, Manning hit just 3 of his next 12 passes. Texas took a 28-3 lead into the halftime break and then controlled the second half without needing much from Manning.

He finished the game with 258 yards and 2 touchdowns through the air. He completed 15 of his 29 passes and took a sack. He’ll probably get a bit of a pass for the second interception. And he’ll probably have his fair share of supporters calling for coach Steve Sarkisian to continue rolling with the youngster. The ball jumps out of his hand. The arm talent is there. But the signs of youth are also there. Manning’s pocket presence and decision-making aren’t yet at Ewers’ level. But they shouldn’t be. Ewers is a veteran; Manning is green. But Texas can certainly win with either.

Longhorn defense flexes

Texas had only given up 19 points in its first 3 outings. The first quarter of the season was a dominant one from the defense. But Texas took things to a different level against ULM. It was unyielding. The Warhawks had just 111 yards of offense — the fewest allowed by UT all year. The Warhawks averaged just 2.2 yards per play — the worst clip by a Texas opponent all year. The Warhawks net just 46 yards from the pass game if you factor out sacks. The Warhawks averaged only 2.8 yards per rushing attempt.

This was a throttling. Per game on paper, ULM averaged negative EPA on each of its dropbacks and each of its rushing attempts. It also had a 22% offensive success rate. Texas stuffed a quarter of ULM’s runs and had a havoc rate of 18%.

Liona Lefau had 6 tackles and a sack. Michael Taaffe registered 1.5 TFLs.

Texas has Mississippi State next week and then Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in a few weeks. Neither offense is any good. The Texas defense might be heading into a matchup with Georgia with a world of confidence.

Jaydon Blue does his thing

When news came out about Cedric Baxter Jr.’s injury, there was understandable concern about the Texas run game from outside the program. But there seemed to be a sense of calm around the Longhorns because of Blue. Of course, the loss of Baxter was going to hurt, but the floor wasn’t going to fall out in the run game.

Blue has slow to get rolling this season, but he had a breakthrough on Saturday. He finished with 124 rushing yards and 3 scores on 25 carries. He also caught a touchdown from Manning from 3 yards out. Texas scored touchdowns on all 7 of its red zone trips and Blue was a key force in that.

He had 11 carries for 57 yards in the opener but just 9 carries for 22 yards against Michigan in Week 2 before an injury hampered him. He missed the UTSA game a week later.

On Saturday, he looked healthy.

That’s a great development for the Longhorns.