Steve Sarkisian offers first game week thoughts on Quinn Ewers as QB1

Quinn Ewers is QB1 in Austin, with the Texas Longhorns scheduled to face off against Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday. The journey to starting for Ewers has been a long one but now, he is working with head coach Steve Sarkisian and hoping to get the program back on the right track.

Entering Saturday, Sarkisian provided his first week game thoughts on Ewers. Sarkisian was asked how he can tell things are slowing down for Ewers. He said body language is a big sign when going through plays.

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As for how they’ll attack the Warhawks, Sarkisian plans to make sure to only insert players Ewers is comfortable with. The rest will be worked on in the future.

“Partially, it’s just body language and demeanor of the quarterback,” Sarkisian said. “But I think a lot of that is specific styles of plays. Some plays come more naturally to guys, some take a minute. I’m trying to navigate the things that have really slowed down for him and those are the things we’ll try to emphasize on Saturday. Maybe some things he’s not quite as comfortable with and maybe we push that back a week. He appears very comfortable.”

Quinn Ewers quietly showing confidence

As for Ewers’ confidence, Sarkisian is liking how the quarterback is handling himself. Not much emotion is present in what he’s saying but instead, his actions. Sarkisian says you can tell by the throws coming out of Ewers’ hand he will be confident when the lights officially come on.

“Quinn is not a wear his emotions on his sleeve kind of guy,” said Sarkisian. “He’s a very mellow mannered, even keel guy. Which I like at the quarterback position. But yet, I can feel his confidence. You can almost see it in the decisiveness on certain throws. Overall, I think he’s in a good spot.”

Ewers has not played a competitive football snap in quite some time. January 2021 was the last, being a junior at Southlake Caroll in a state championship game. While Ewers got onto the field at Ohio State, he just handed the ball off a couple of times.

Practice has been his only source of experience in college. Even so, the former Five-Star Plus+ quarterback will not be afraid to make any kind of throw.

Steve Sarkisian explains gameplan with freshman quarterback

Gamplanning can be hard in the first game of a new quarterback, let alone a freshman. Sarkisian said with all of the information thrown at Ewers during fall camp, game week will be different. He wants to find specific play calls Ewers is comfortable with and do so on a weekly basis.

“The hard part for us in training camp — you start getting into practice 14, 15 — that’s a lot of install,” the head coach said. “They’re trying to absorb and they don’t know what’s getting called. When you get into game planning, man it’s really tight and they know it’s very specific on the play calls coming and why we’re calling them.

“Naturally, you see a little bit of a shift game week and game prep because the understanding of what’s getting called and what’s up for the week.”

Texas will kick off its crucial 2022 season on Saturday, playing at home. It’s a tune-up game for the Longhorns as the all-important nonconference showdown vs. Alabama is just one week later.