Steve Sarkisian explains what it would take for Quinn Ewers to play vs. Mississippi State
After Arch Manning made his first career start on for the No. 1 Longhorns against the ULM Warhawks, there is some uncertainty regarding whether Saturday’s game against Mississippi State will be his second career start or if regular starter Quinn Ewers will return to the QB1 role.
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Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said that Ewers practiced in the morning on Monday, and explained what he was looking for from his normal starter in order to determine if he could make Manning the backup again.
“I would say if I had to put a report out, he’d be questionable for Saturday,” Sarkisian said Monday. “We’ll see how he goes throughout the week and monitor how he responds to tomorrow coming off of today’s practice.”
Ewers did not suit up for pregame warmups, something Sarkisian has had him do in the past so as not to reveal his status to the other team until the very last second.
What does Ewers have to do this week in practice for Sarkisian to believe he can return to his starting quarterback role?
“He’s got to do enough to show me he can play,” Sarkisian said. “I know that’s probably not the answer you wanted, but that’s what I mean. 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. I want to make sure he’s healthy enough to play at a high level. Can he go operate the game plan we have in place for him?
“That’s why I need to see how he responds from today’s work, and then what it looks like on a Tuesday then a Wednesday, which are pretty heavy days for him. Then, how he rebounds on a Thursday, so on and so forth.”
In place of Ewers, Manning was 15-for-29 for 258 yards. He threw two touchdowns as part of the Longhorns’ 51-3 win over ULM, but also turned the ball over twice with two interceptions. Sarkisian saw a lot of positives from his backup quarterback’s play, but also plenty of room for growth.
“I thought Arch, from an offensive perspective when we go back and look at it, is kind of what I thought,” Sarkisian said. “There’s probably four or five plays in there when he really grasped checking that ball down, the value in that checkdown to maybe not force a couple of those throws and the impact that can have. That’s the difference between completing 50, 52 percent of your passes to 65 percent of your passes.
Sarkisian lamented the fact that his game plan for ULM on offense was tilted toward the deep ball and didn’t feature as many easy throws as he would have liked.
“Like I said Saturday night, with a young quarterback, I’m kind of kicking myself a little,” Sarkisian said. “I wish I had a few other freebie completions for him so there could have been a little bit more balance.”
The next few days of practice will determine what Sarkisian does at quarterback for the Longhorns, but Monday provided the Longhorns with a good launching point when it comes to Ewers’ availability.
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“It’s going to be kind of a work in progress, but today was a good start. I was impressed of where he was today. That’s kind of his trajectory since the injury happened. I think he keeps getting better incrementally better day by day.”
