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AUSTIN, Texas— Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers is questionable for Saturday’s SEC opener against the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Austin, according to head coach Steve Sarkisian during his Monday press conference. Ewers participated in morning practice at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
“We’ll see how he does throughout the week and monitor how he responds to tomorrow coming off of today’s practice,” Sarkisian informed reporters.
“I was actually impressed by where he was today and that’s been part of his trajectory since the injury happened — I feel like he keeps getting incrementally better day by day.”
But what would it take for Sarkisian to feel comfortable starting Ewers over redshirt freshman quarterback Arch Manning, who made his first collegiate start last Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe, a 51-3 victory for Texas?
“He just needs to do enough to show me you can play…” We have a game plan. Can he carry out the game plan? “I hate to boil it down to that, but that’s the truth,” Sarkisian stated. “Again, I want to make sure he’s healthy enough to play at a high level and can he go operate the game plan that we that we have in place for him.”
With Ewers in his third year starting for Sarkisian on the Forty Acres, the head coach and quarterback have developed a trusting relationship. Perhaps more crucially, the two have expertise negotiating rehabilitation timelines after Ewers sustained a SC joint sprain in his left shoulder, causing him to miss three games, and an AC joint sprain in his right shoulder, which kept him out for two games.
“I think the beauty of it for Quinn and I is our time together, him having to come back from injuries previously, [knowing that] him being honest with me is in his best interest and our best interest and things of that nature and that I’ll do everything in my power to put him in the best position to be successful if he plays and if he doesn’t, what does that look like moving forward?” Sarkisian said.
