Arch Manning may lead No. 1 Texas as it kicks off SEC play on Saturday.
Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday that starting quarterback Quinn Ewers is still questionable for the matchup due to an oblique strain.
“He’s got to do enough to show me he can play,” Sarkisian said, via ESPN’s Dave Wilson. “Can he execute the game plan? I kind of 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, and then how he rebounds on Thursday.
“It’s going to be kind of a work in progress. But today was a good start.”
Ewers went down in the second quarter of Texas’ 56-7 win over UTSA in Week 3 of the season with his abdominal strain, and he’s not played since. Manning immediately stepped in during that contest and threw a touchdown pass on his first play, and he followed it up with a 67-yard touchdown run on his third play.
Manning then started in Saturday’s 51-3 win over Louisiana-Monroe. He went 15-of-29 for 258 yards and had two touchdowns and two interceptions in that blowout win, which pushed the Longhorns to 4-0 on the season. One of those interceptions came on his first possession of the game.
“I’ve seen a lot of young quarterbacks have a rough start, and then that rough start turns into a rough game,” Sarkisian said, via ESPN. “It was a little bit of a rough start for him, but I thought he rebounded and did some nice things for us. … Arch is a really good deep-ball thrower, and it gives guys chances to go make plays on those shots down the field.
“With a young quarterback, I’m kind of kicking myself a little. I wish I had a few other freebie completions for him, just so that there could have been a little bit more balance getting that completion percentage up, being efficient, moving the chains.”
Ewers racked up 3,479 yards and 22 touchdowns with the Longhorns last season. He returned to the program this fall, and led them to a 2-0 start that included a 31-12 win over Michigan in Ann Arbor earlier this month.
Texas will play its first SEC game since joining the conference on Saturday afternoon when it hosts Mississippi State. The Bulldogs enter that contest with a 1-3 record, and they’ve lost three straight.
If Ewers can’t go on Saturday, he’ll have extra time to recover. The Longhorns have a bye week before taking on No. 21 Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl and then No. 2 Georgia in what is sure to be their toughest stretch of the season.
