Texas HC Steve Sarkisian chews on ‘Monday morning quarterbacks’ who doubt QB Quinn Ewers’ play vs. Georgia
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian made it clear Saturday night that Quinn Ewers would remain the Longhorns’ starting quarterback. The second-quarter temporary switch to backup Arch Manning was just that. Temporary. Sarkisian admitted he was simply looking for a spark. On Monday, Sarkisian said with confidence that “I think Quinn definitely can play better.” There was […]
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian made it clear Saturday night that Quinn Ewers would remain the Longhorns’ starting quarterback.
The second-quarter temporary switch to backup Arch Manning was just that. Temporary. Sarkisian admitted he was simply looking for a spark.
On Monday, Sarkisian said with confidence that “I think Quinn definitely can play better.” There was no discussion about Manning at all. All indications are Ewers will start Saturday at No. 25 Vanderbilt.
“We’ve got to continue to work his pocket presence and making sure that he’s capitalizing on the premier looks when we get them, why we're calling plays and we get those shots to take them,” Sarkisian said of Ewers. “But I also think we need to play better around him.
“You know, our offense isn't about one player playing well. It's about all 11 playing well,” he added. “And I don’t think we’ve been at our best from a from a totality standpoint. So yes, Quinn needs to play better, and I believe that he will.”
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Ewers did not attend the Monday press conference, as is his custom when healthy. No explanation was given. All player interviews are done on Mondays.
Sarkisian did chew on “all the Monday morning quarterbacks” for several busted plays against the Bulldogs when it appeared to be Ewers’ fault. For example, Ewers fumbled the ball after a corner blitz. Sarkisian said it was a protection breakdown. “Quinn thought he was protected on the backside. Clearly he wasn’t,” Sarkisian said.
Another sack was the result of the running back not picking up the middle linebacker, the coach said. Another play, Ewers couldn’t step up into the pocket because the running back “gets run over through the A gap” and he can’t step up. Lineman Cam Williams lost his man and that led to a sack on another play, the coach said.
“It was kind of a variety of things,” Sarkisian said. “And that’s my point. It’s not this one, ‘Hey, this guy just got his butt kicked.’ That’s not really what happened.”
Sarkisian emphasized that he did not single out any one player or even one particular unit during his talk with the team. “We just did not have great execution Saturday night,” the coach said. “Most notably, we didn't have great execution at critical moments.”
To be sure, it wasn’t all on Ewers. The offensive line struggled against a Georgia defense practically hellbent on teaching a few lessons. Georgia’s pre-snap motion was designed to fool the offensive line into making bad choices and false starts.
“I had a foul on this aspect. Pre-snap penalties are unacceptable at home, to me,” tight end Gunnar Helm said. “We got to clean that up.”
“I had definitely a lot of mistakes that could have been warranted from small things as just picking up the protection better or just better technique,” left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. said. “But as a whole, I feel like the O-line, we performed good at some moments. And there were some moments where it was like, OK, we could have did better right there.”
As bad as Georgia loss feels, Texas football still controls its destiny with Vanderbilt next and big SEC games ahead
Texas is no longer undefeated and, come midday Sunday when the polls are updated, will no longer be ranked No. 1. Neither of those things matter to coach Steve Sarkisian, though. Nor should they matter to Longhorns fans. Texas (6-1, 2-1 SEC) is still in contention for the SEC championship game and the 12-team College […]
The running game was practically non-existent. Texas finished with 29 rushing yards. It’s the second-lowest total in Sarkisian’s four seasons. UT had just 28 rushing yards against TCU in 2022.
“It’s not just Quinn, it’s the whole offense, even the whole team,” running back Jaydon Blue said. “For me, you know, I could have pass protected better. There’s a couple plays where I didn’t block as well. And just being more detailed to make sure that I could be able to help Quinn out whenever he does get rattled or make him feel more comfortable.”
No, the Georgia loss wasn’t totally on Ewers. It was on the entire offense.
That’s why Sarkisian believes the Horns simply need to reset and focus on the Commodores.
“Everybody’s got to get back to playing our brand, our standard of football,” Sarkisian said. “And I think that’s the message, right? It's not about, hey, just this one thing needs to get fixed and we’re going to be OK. We've all got to improve, coaches included. And so that's really been the message.”
