Quinn Ewers is undoubtedly a critical piece of Steve Sarkisian's national championship aspirations

The No. 1 Texas Longhorns will start Arch Manning on Saturday against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks. Steve Sarkisian and company are excited for Manning to continue his strong play against an overmatched ULM team and earn valuable experience. But there’s no dispute in the Texas football program, nor in Sarkisian’s mind, whose team this is.

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Sarkisian spoke Thursday via Zoom about the demeanor of Quinn Ewers, the regular starting quarterback for the Longhorns. He admitted it’s tough for a competitor like Ewers to be sidelined yet again, but Sarkisian wanted to impress upon his starter — yes, still his starter — that the lofty aspirations the Longhorns have for the 2024 season depend upon Ewers being under center for the most important games.

“One thing I tried to impress upon Quinn, all the goals he had and that we’ve had for him coming into this season are all still there for him,” Sarkisian said. “I think we have a national championship caliber team, and he’s the quarterback of that team, and I think we still have that in front of us to go do that. I think with some of the games that we have coming up down on the road, this guy’s going to be in New York for the Heisman whether he wins it or not. He has the ability to do that, and I think he has ability to be a top-five NFL draft pick.

“All the things that I think he’s capable of are still out there for him. Him not playing in this game this Saturday is not going to impact those three things that I know are goals that we’ve set for him and that he’s working towards.”

Ewers, who is out for this week and potentially one more game with what Sarkisian described as a strained abdominal, is 58-for-79 (73.4%) this year for 691 yards and eight touchdowns to two interceptions.

Sarkisian, who has coached Heisman finalists or winners in Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, and Bryce Young among others, knows the type of play needed to meet the expectations he levied upon Ewers at the beginning of the year. But it’s not just Ewers who he gave lofty praise to. He explicitly said his entire team, not just the quarterback position, is national championship caliber.

There have been other mentions of this line of thinking throughout the past two years. In the summer of 2023, Sarkisian spoke about how nice it would be to play in Houston twice during the following season. He was alluding to not just a road game at the University of Houston, but also the College Football Playoff National Championship at NRG Stadium in Houston his team fell 12 yards short of playing in.

Sarkisian has commented ahead of and during the 2024 season how he will need to tap into the program’s talented depth in order to play all the way to January 20, 2025 in the 12-team CFP’s national championship game. Manning and the ability he put on display against UTSA is no doubt part of that depth, but Thursday’s comments were the first time Sarkisian publicly declared how high the team’s ceiling could be and whose presence that ceiling depends on.

ULM and arguably Mississippi State as well are two teams that the Longhorns might not need Ewers for in order to win. ULM has only beaten FCS Jackson State and Trent Dilfer‘s falling UAB program. Mississippi State lost to Arizona State in Tempe and turned around to drop an embarrassing loss to the Mid-American Conference’s Toledo Rockets at home last week by a score of 41-17.

A bye follows those two contests, but things change dramatically on October 12. Texas will head to the Cotton Bowl to face the rival Oklahoma Sooners. OU may not have the offense figured out, but thus far Brent Venables‘ defense has been one of the best in the country. After that? The No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs under Kirby Smart arrive in Austin for what should be a top-10 matchup, if not a top-5 (if not a top-2) game.

Those are the games Texas will need Ewers for. Manning, though talented, may not be ready for those challenges in his second year. At the very least, it’s evident Sarkisian would rather not find out this seasom.

For Ewers, this is his third consecutive season with an injury that has knocked him out of at least one game. That’s never an easy pill to swallow, but Sarkisian was impressed with how the Longhorns’ starter has handled things in the days following his exit from the game against UTSA.

“I think his psyche has come back in a really positive frame,” Sarkisian said. “Naturally, everybody’s always a little down when you don’t get to do what you love to do, and he loves to play football. But I think his understanding of he’s getting healthy and he’s getting healthy quickly, and that all the goals and things are still out there in front of him to go achieve this season, has really kind of inspired him to get back, to feel good, and when his number is called be ready to play.”

Sarkisian also mentioned Ewers has supported Manning throughout the current week and will again on Saturday while he wears an earpiece to hear the play-calls sent into Manning.

Manning himself said to the media postgame on Saturday that Ewers has constantly been a tremendous supporter of his and could not ask for a better teammate, even amidst backup jokes on Dr. Pepper Fansville commercials (which Manning said Ewers gave him a heads-up about).

The son of Cooper, nephew of Peyton and Eli, and grandson of Archie will have the reins for at least one game. But Sarkisian made it clear on Thursday that the 2024 Texas Longhorns will go as far as Ewers can take them.

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“I feel like Quinn has made great strides ever since Saturday night and to where he’s gotten to,” Sarkisian said. “But where my decision is, I’m looking forward to his future as a player but also the future of the season for us and longevity. And getting him possibly one more week healthier for the long term I think is good for us as we’re getting ready for SEC play.”