Longhorns Country

Steve Sarkisian Leaving Door Open For Quinn Ewers to Start vs. Mississippi State

Quinn Ewers will have every opportunity to start vs. Mississippi State on Saturday.

Matt Galatzan

Sep 21, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) talks with head coach Steve Sarkisian before the game against Louisiana Monroe Warhawks at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images
Sep 21, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) talks with head coach Steve Sarkisian before the game against Louisiana Monroe Warhawks at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images / Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images
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AUSTIN - Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian revealed on Thursday that starting quarterback Quinn Ewers will have a chance to start this Saturday vs. Mississippi State.

Ewers has been out since the second quarter of the Longhorns 56-7 Week 3 win over UTSA with an abdominal strain, leading to Arch Manning getting the start last Saturday vs. ULM.

And while the consensus was that Ewers would likely rest and heal until the Horns' trip to Dallas to take on the Oklahoma Sooners On October 12, according to Sarkisian, it has been rapidly improving.

"He's improved every day," Sarkisian said. "It won't be a secret. We're not trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes. We just want to give Quinn every opportunity to see if he's ready to play and what he looks like."

Before the injury, Ewers was playing at a Heisman-caliber level, completing 73.4 percent of his passes for 691 yards and eight touchdowns with two interceptions over nine quarters of football.

And once healthy, Sarkisian believes he still every opportunity to earn those honors, and more.

"With some of the games that we have coming up down the road, (Ewers) is gonna be in New York for the Heisman, whether he wins it or not, but he has the ability to do that," Sarkisian said. "I think he has the ability to be a top-five NFL Draft Pick. All of the things that I think he is capable of are still out there for him. Him not playing in this game Saturday is not gonna impact those three things that I know are goals that we've set for him and that he's working towards."

Texas and Mississippi State kick off at 3:15 pm CT on SEC Network.

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Matt Galatzan
MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.

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