With Quinn Ewers 'week-to-week,' Steve Sarkisian set to prepare Maalik Murphy and Arch Manning for extended action
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday that Quinn Ewers is “week-to-week” after reportedly sustaining an injury to his throwing shoulder versus Houston. Ewers was replaced by Maalik Murphy, who was 1-for-2 versus the Cougars.
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Sarkisian tried to maintain some ambiguity as it pertains to Ewers’ status, but was fairly direct in how he answered a question about whether Murphy or Arch Manning would be the starter if the game was Monday afternoon.
“We’ll go through the week, and Arch and Maalik will both get a ton of reps,” Sarkisian said. “If the game was being played today, Maalik would start the game. Arch will be ready to go.”
Murphy, a 6-foot-5, 238-pound redshirt freshman from Inglewood (Calif.) Serra, is obviously a different quarterback than Ewers or even Manning. He has about four inches in height and over 40 pounds of weight on Texas’ typical starter, and isn’t as mobile as Ewers. However, he likely has a stronger arm, the strongest on the team at that, and can push the ball downfield in ways Ewers might not be able to.
Sarkisian went into more detail Monday, offering three aspects that make Murphy ready for the spotlight should he be asked to enter it.
“Maalik’s a natural passer,” Sarkisian said. “When he throws the ball, he throws a very beautiful ball. I think there’s not a throw he can’t make.
“I think he’s got really good leadership qualities. I think the guys like playing with Maalik, and that’s a positive as a quarterback. Inevitably as a quarterback, you’re only as good as the guys around you. When guys play good around you, that makes your job a lot easier. I think that’s extremely helpful.
“I think the third piece is his understanding of what we’re doing. He’s got a great feel for the game. He’s got a good feel for passing the ball. He can make all the throws. I think he understands what we do and why we do and that’s another added bonus.”
Those are glowing comments from Sarkisian, and while he didn’t deliver similar descriptions on Manning he still noted that the presence of that duo along with Ewers helps soften the potential blow of an extended Ewers absence.
“Not every school is as fortunate as we are to have the quarterback room that we have, and the connectivity that room has,” Sarkisian said.
However, the situation currently demands someone who was No. 2 or possibly No. 3 in the pecking order rise the the occasion. That means preparing one new quarterback within the constraints of Sarkisian’s offense, and that could result in things Ewers found easy scrapped for things Murphy (or Manning) can execute.
In order to do that, Sarkisian said he and quarterbacks coach AJ Millwee will meet with the signal-callers on Friday night as they do on a weekly basis. Each quarterback will let the coaches know what plays in certain situations they like, and what schemes they are comfortable with. From Sarkisian’s description of those conversations, the plays Murphy likes are likely to be pivotal.
“We have a running log of the plays they’ve marked that they like,” Sarkisian said. “Seven weeks into the season, I’ve got seven weeks of information from Maalik of the plays that he’s comfortable with.”
Sarkisian will help Murphy and Manning, but he had advice for them on Monday: be adaptable and let the easy things be easy.
Then, of course, they’ll have to execute versus BYU. It will be a test for either Murphy or Manning, or both. Sarkisian plans to do everything in the program’s power to help them pass.
“I’m not concerned about them fighting through when adversity strikes, but I do want to make sure that I’m giving them the opportunity to do the things they’ve shown us that they’re good at and they like,” Sarkisian said. “Saturday is going to be a test enough. It doesn’t need to be a final exam as far as ‘let’s test them on things they might know or might not know.’ I want to test them on the stuff that I know they know really well. I hope they get 100 percent.”
Injury notes
“Quinn and Ethan Burke will both be week to week at this point,” Sarkisian said. “You never really know exactly how bodies respond to injury, and so we’re just going to have to monitor these guys on a weekly basis. Obviously, we’re going to do everything in our power to get both those guys back sooner rather than later, so we’ll see how that goes. (Jalen) Catalon is in that same breath. Those are the three guys there, everybody else has been really good.”
Sark on the BYU defensive style
“It’s a very aggressive style, very attacking,” Sarkisian said. “Attack the line of scrimmage, defensive line is penetrating. They’re trying to get into the backfield. I think they have a lot of confidence in their players and their scheme. They do a good job on first down, second down of mixing things up and on third down, how can they get to the quarterback? In the end they’re ball conscious and you see the turnovers when they come and why they come.”
