Brian Kelly pins blame for Texas' offensive struggles on coach Steve Sarkisian, not Arch Manning

The sky appears to be falling in Austin, Texas, with the Longhorns having suffered back-to-back losses.

With Arch Manning being the starting quarterback for a Texas offense that ranks in the bottom half of the league, many are pointing at him as the lead culprit of the messy situation, but one former head coach is pointing the blame elsewhere.

Just two weeks ago, Texas was the No.

1 team in the country and appeared to be a real threat to win a national title.

Now, the Longhorns are just one loss away from virtually being eliminated from College Football Playoff contention, but the big picture of it all is that head coach Steve Sarkisian has simply not pushed Manning to take a step in the right direction.

To put it simply, Manning has been average so far this season.

He's 10th among SEC quarterbacks in completion percentage (63.9), 12th in passing yards (1,295), and ninth in touchdown passes (11).

He has not been able to elevate his team's offense as much as many expected him to in what is now his fourth year in Austin.

STEVE SARKISIAN VOWS TO 'EVALUATE EVERYTHING,' WON’T RULE OUT BENCHING ARCH MANNING AMID TEXAS' TWO-GAME SKID In Brian Kelly's opinion, the offensive struggles seen at Texas this season fall on the shoulders of the man who calls the plays, Sarkisian.

"I think it’s on the play caller," Kelly told Danny Kanell on SiriusXM on Tuesday.

"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 CRAIG CARTON SHOW–UNFILTERED, UNAPOLOGETIC AND UNMISSABLE.