Texas hopes to replicate success in Quinn Ewers return-from-injury games

Exactly four weeks will have passed from when Quinn Ewers left Texas’ game against UTSA when the Longhorns take the field on October 12 in the Cotton Bowl against the Oklahoma Sooners. That’s a period of time the Longhorns hope is long enough to prepare Ewers to be ready to play in the Red River Shootout for the third time in his career.

[Join Inside Texas TODAY and get the BEST Texas Longhorns scoop!]

Ewers has now missed multiple games during the course of a season for the third straight year, but missing action doesn’t mean missing opportunities to learn and develop in Steve Sarkisian‘s program. That’s especially true as Sarkisian and his assistants assess Ewers’ readiness for a top-25 matchup with the rival Sooners.

“Throughout the week, I’m really trying to assess the things that I think he’s most comfortable with,” Sarkisian said Monday. “Various injuries along the way, different types of injury. What does it look like he’s most comfortable with? If he’s going to play, I’ve already listed out 10, 15, 20 things I think he feels really good about.

“We’ll probably go in that direction if he were to play so that he’s running stuff he’s had some success with throughout the week. As opposed to saying ‘this looks like a great play design, it should work.’ But, either he didn’t rep it because of limited reps during the week, or when he did get that rep it didn’t look so good.”

This is a process Sarkisian and Ewers should be very familiar with now after Texas’ junior quarterback missed three games in 2022 and two games in 2023. Upon his return from each absence, Ewers led Texas to victories. One of them was even historic.

Ewers left the loss to Alabama after one quarter of play in 2022 and returned to action a few weeks later for that year’s edition of the Red River Shootout. Ewers eviscerated a hapless OU defense, going 21-for-31 for 289 yards and four touchdowns plus an inconsequential interception during Texas’ 49-0 win.

Then in 2023 after leaving the Houston win due to injury, Ewers returned in time for the road game against the TCU Horned Frogs. He was 22-for-33 for 317 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

That pick was notable for being undone thanks to the efforts of Xavier Worthy and Jordan Whittington.

The touchdown toss in Fort Worth went to Adonai Mitchell, as did an important have-to-have-it third down conversion that moved the Longhorns out of the shadow of their own goalposts and into a position where they could run out the clock.

In total in two return-from-injury games, Ewers is 43-for-64 (67%) for 606 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions.

How has Texas made sure that Ewers was ready for action upon his return?

“I think it starts right when they get injured,” Sarkisian said. “We always look to every player, but most notably the quarterback, when he gets injured we want to pull him in even tighter. We want to pull him in even closer. When we’re at practice, Quinn is engaged. He’s in every meeting. He’s talking about the gameplan.”

Will Ewers play? Sarkisian didn’t go into specifics on that front Monday during his weekly press conference nor on Wednesday in the SEC Coaches Teleconference. The Longhorns do not have to put out any information on the SEC Student-Athlete Availability Report this week since they, like the Sooners, are on bye.

He did provide a positive update on Monday, however.

“He’s just rehabbing as he has been,” Sarkisian said. “I think he’s been making steady progress one day to the next, which is a good sign. We haven’t had any setbacks. It’s been steady progress. I think he’s getting stronger, more comfortable, and more confident. We’re just going to stay the course with that.”

Throughout his time with Ewers, staying the course when dealing with injuries has led to success for Sarkisian.

[Subscribe to the Inside Texas YouTube channel and help get us to 10,000 subs!]

The Texas head coach hopes to complete a replication of the process next Saturday should Ewers return for the Red River Shootout on October 12.