Is Quinn Ewers Injury-Prone? Steve Sarkisian Weighs In

Quinn Ewers has missed seven total games in his Texas Longhorns career and at least two in each season.

Sep 28, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) looks on before the game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images / Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

AUSTIN -- Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian confirmed Thursday that quarterback Quinn Ewers will start Saturday against Oklahoma at the Red River Rivalry in Dallas. Ewers has missed the last two games after suffering an oblique injury in the win over UTSA on Sept. 14.

Now in his third year with Texas, Ewers has missed a total of seven games as a Longhorn due to injury, with at least two absences in each season. Naturally, the conversation of him earning the "injury-prone" label is a real one to have, but Sarkisians sees things differently.

When meeting with the media ahead of the Oklahoma game, Sarkisian said he doesn't think Ewers is injury-prone, pointing to the fact that he's recovered well each time.

“I don't necessarily think so," Sarkisian said. "Sometimes injuries happen because they happen, you know?"

In his first season at Texas in 2022, Alabama star linebacker Dallas Turner hit Ewers late and drove him into the ground causing a collarbone injury. In Sarkisian's eyes, it's hard to call someone injury-prone when the injury occurs after a violent or awkward hit.

"I mean, when a guy gets pile-drived on his shoulder, there's a pretty good chance — it doesn't matter who you are — your shoulder is probably going to be sore to some capacity," Sarkisian said. "Or when you get pile-drived and your clavicle gets, gets popped. I mean, I don't know many guys that would have withstood that hit from Dallas Turner a couple years ago. That was an odd hit. And I've seen that injury, that same injury Quinn had that year, Jalen Hurts had as well. Oddly enough, he has the oblique strain there a few weeks ago, and I'm watching the game the other night. Derek Carr is out of the game, oblique strain.

"So things happen in football. Our sport is our sport. I think more importantly is they monitor his ability to come back and how he comes back and how he plays. And I think Quinn has shown over his time that when he's been injured, he's engaged, he comes back and he plays really good football coming off of injury. And so this is, to me, another chance for him to go show that he can do that here moving forward.”

Ewers will look to shake off the rust quickly on Saturday when No. 1 Texas and No. 18 Oklahoma kick off from the Cotton Bowl at 2:30 p.m. CT.