Texas starting quarterback Quinn Ewers is questionable for the Longhorns’ game Saturday against Mississippi State, coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday.
Ewers missed No. 1 Texas’ 51-3 win over Louisiana-Monroe with a strained oblique suffered on Sept. 14. Redshirt freshman Arch Manning started in his place, throwing for 258 yards and two touchdowns. Manning would start again Saturday if Ewers can’t go.
Sarkisian sounded optimistic about Ewers’ progress. The junior quarterback practiced Monday and Sarkisian said he was “impressed” with where Ewers was in his recovery.
“It’s going to be kind of a work in progress, but today was a good start,” Sarkisian said Monday. “I was actually impressed with where he was today. That’s been kind of his trajectory since the injury happened. I feel like he keeps getting incrementally better day by day.”
Ewers was playing the best football of his career when he left the second quarter of the Longhorns’ 56-7 win over UTSA with the injury.
He suffered it while throwing a deep pass to tight end Gunnar Helm. Ewers left that game a play later and didn’t return. Sarkisian said last week he wanted to be patient with Ewers to have him as healthy as possible for SEC play, which begins this weekend for the Longhorns.
Ewers has completed a career-high 73.4 percent of his passes this season, thrown for 691 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions and averaged 8.7 yards per attempt in eight-plus quarters of action.
Sarkisian said they’ll continue to monitor Ewers’ progress throughout the week. Tuesday and Wednesday are heavier practice days and they want to see how his body responds after each practice. When asked how much practice time Ewers, a three-year starter, needs to convince Sarkisian to start him this weekend, Sarkisian said, “He’s got to do enough to show me he can play.”
“We’ve got a game plan. Can he execute the game plan? I hate to pare it down to that, but that’s really the truth,” Sarkisian said. “I want to make sure he’s healthy enough to play at a high level. Can he go operate the game plan that we that we have in place for him?”
In reviewing the performance of Manning, who played three-plus quarters on Saturday, Sarkisian said he was encouraged by the young quarterback’s resilience. Manning threw two interceptions in the first half, including one on his first drive of the game.
“A year ago after that pick, that might have taken a minute for him to rebound from,” Sarkisian said. “I thought he responded really well mentally. I thought his poise and composure was really good Saturday.”
Texas (4-0) hosts Mississippi State at 4:15 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
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