Steve Sarkisian wants to give Quinn Ewers every chance to prove he can start.
AUSTIN, Texas — With the SEC opener against the Mississippi State Bulldogs looming on Saturday afternoon for the Texas Longhorns, that means three more injury reports before kickoff.
At some point before Friday’s injury report, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian will make a determination about whether redshirt junior starting quarterback Quinn Ewers is ready to return from his oblique strain or whether redshirt freshman Arch Manning will receive his second start.
“We’re going to decide on the quarterback thing tomorrow, and again, it won’t be a secret,” Sarkisian said during his Thursday media availability. “We’re not trying to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes, I just want to give Quinn every opportunity to see if he’s ready to play and what he looks like. But I’d say he’s improved every day.”
Ewers left the UTSA game with the non-contact injury in the second quarter and was listed as questionable by Sarkisian before Manning was named the starter on Thursday and Ewers spent the game in street clothes.
After the 51-3 win over ULM, Manning gave himself a C+ for his up-and-down performance which featured the first two interceptions he’s thrown in his career on 15-of-29 passing for 258 yards and two touchdowns.
“I think Arch has had a very good week and I would say that is Trey Owens probably had his best practice as a Longhorn today, so that was really encouraging as well,” Sarkisian said.
On Monday, Sarkisian addressed what it will take for Ewers to get the nod.
“He’s just got to do enough to show me you can play… 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,” Sarkisian said. “Again, I want to make sure he’s healthy enough to play at a high level and can he go operate the game plan that we that we have in place for him.”