There’s trouble in Austin this morning for the University of Texas football program, and it again surrounds an injury to starting quarterback Quinn Ewers.
The Longhorns defeated Alabama in Tuscaloosa in the second week of the season in part because of the strong play of Ewers and the offensive line – Alabama couldn’t get pressure on Ewers and he was able to keep the Crimson Tide’s defense on its heels.
But Ewers went down in the ‘Horns’ trip to Houston last Saturday, an apparent injury to his throwing shoulder. Ewers was scrambling and was hit by Houston’s David Ugwoegbu.
According to ESPN.com, Ewers had an MRI on Sunday and has a grade 2 AC joint sprain (Sources – Texas QB Quinn Ewers to miss time with AC joint sprain). Ewers missed time last season after a suffering a shoulder injury in the UT game against Alabama in Austin on a hit by Dallas Turner.
Ewers isn’t expected to miss the rest of the season because of this injury; plans should develop over the course of the week. The main plan, of course, is Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff are going to do at quarterback.
Freshmen Maalik Murphy and Arch Manning are listed at numbers two and three, respectively, on the Longhorns’ depth chart. Murphy only threw twice against Houston, completing a pass for 7 yards. Manning didn’t play, but his background is well-documented: he is the son of Cooper Manning, the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning, and one of the nation’s top recruits last season.
Ewers was the incumbent starter from a year ago, and has led Texas to the No. 7 spot in both the Associated Press and the AFCA Coaches poll.
For his part, Sarkisian took things in stride and voiced faith in Murphy – as you’d expect.
“I thought Maalik showed great poise and composure,” Sarkisian said. “He’s got a lot of belief in himself, and he understands our system. If it’s him this week, I know he’ll prepare really well and he’ll get the majority of those reps, and I think he’ll play good football. And I think Arch will be ready. We’ll have the utmost confidence in them to play good football.”
Texas (6-1 overall, 3-1 in conference play) has back-to-back home games coming up. They’re set to host new Big 12 Conference opponent BYU (5-2, 202) Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on ABC, and then on Nov. 3, to host Kansas State (5-2, 3-1).
