Texas Longhorns starting QB Quinn Ewers has missed a little more than two and a half games. But according to a new report, the junior from Southlake will be back under center for Red River.
Chip Brown of Horns247 reports, according to a source close to the situation, Ewers is on track to start against Red River Rival Oklahoma on October 12 in the Cotton Bowl.
Ewers suffered an oblique strain against UTSA on September 14. Ewers was relieved by Arch Manning against the Roadrunners. Manning has since started in Ewers place against UL Monroe and Mississippi State.
In his weekly Monday press conference, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Ewers is progressing.
“We haven’t had any setbacks. It’s been steady progress. I think he’s getting stronger and more comfortable and more confident, and so we’ll just kind of stay the course with that.” — Steve Sarkisian
Over the past two seasons, Ewers has performed well in his first game back from injury. Returning from a sternoclavicular strain in 2022, Ewers was 21 of 31 passing for 289 yards and four touchdowns in a 49-0 beating of the Sooners. In 2023, Ewers returned from missing two games with an AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder by going 22 of 33 for 317 yards and a touchdown in a 29-26 win at TCU.
#Texas #Longhorns' redshirt junior QB Quinn Ewers is expected to return to the starting lineup against the #Oklahoma #Sooners on Oct. 12 after missing the last two and a half games due to an abdominal strain, a source close to the situation told https://t.co/RFQ2dWW2eV.…
— Chip Brown (@ChipBrown247) September 30, 2024
Sark says the key is keeping the injured player involved, especially at QB.
“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 game plan.
Friday night before the game, we go through the call sheet with the quarterbacks, and he’s talking through different things. On Saturday, he’s wearing the earpiece. So we keep him engaged on that front.” — Steve Sarkisian
One benefit of pulling the player close and keeping a close eye on him is testing what he can handle and what he’s comfortable with even though the player might be limited some by the injury.
“Throughout the week, I’m really trying to assess the things that I think he’s most comfortable with during his various injuries along the way. What does it look like he’s most comfortable with, and if he’s going to play, I’ve already kind of listed out 10 to 15, maybe 20 things that I think he feels really good about. And we’ll probably go in that direction if he were to play so that he’s running stuff that 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. The stubborn me would still call that play. The guy that tries to step back and try to put his players in the best position to be successful, goes to his bucket of the stuff that I thought he did well throughout the week.” — Steve Sarkisian
Ewers getting a full month rest before returning for the Texas-OU game was probably the best case scenario all along. Manning got valuable experience against teams Texas was heavily favored against, while Ewers got an opportunity to come back as close to 100% as possible.