Texas coach Steve Sarkisian wants to give injured quarterback Quinn Ewers every single second possible to get healthy for Saturday’s SEC opener against Mississippi State.

If Ewers can stretch out his abdominal strain, then Sarkisian can stretch out a decision a little longer, too.

The coaching staff will decide on Friday whether Ewers or backup Arch Manning will start against the Bulldogs (1-3, 0-1 SEC). Either way, No. 1 Texas (4-0, 0-0) has one major factor going in its favor — it doesn’t seem to matter either way.

The quarterback issue hasn’t mattered, to be sure. The Longhorns have all kinds of problems with running back depth, but that hasn’t stopped them from running between the tackles.

Mississippi State HC Jeff Lebby expects to face Texas QB Arch Manning but could also see Quinn Ewers

Organized coaches know to prepare for anything, but Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby has a hunch who will start for No. 1 Texas on Saturday. Lebby expects to see redshirt freshman Arch Manning on the field for the Longhorns (4-0, 0-0 SEC) instead of junior Quinn Ewers, who is questionable with a strained abdominal injury. […]

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Sarkisian says it all the time, “The standard is the standard.” The offense is showing some serious plug-and-play tenacity.

Through four games, Texas has 26 “explosive plays,” plays that are 20 yards or more. That’s head of last year’s pace (21 through four games). The offense is on track to shatter just about every imaginable offensive record, especially if the Longhorns make a deep playoff run.

The 2005 national championship team has long been the school benchmark for offensive greatness. Their numbers could get obliterated if this year’s team plays 15, 16 or 17 games total, which is possible in the 12-team CFP format.

“I think we went into the season saying we need to be a more explosive offensive team,” Sarkisian said Thursday.

The Horns wanted to be better inside the opponents’ 20-yard line and on third down. And they are in those areas, too. Texas has scored 21 touchdowns on 23 trips in the red zone; the offense is converting 52% of the time on third down compared to 38% last year.

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“We felt like we needed to be a more explosive offense,” the coach added. “And so trying to trying to create plays that could create some explosives for our guys to create space in the open field, has been something that we’ve stressed and worked on as a staff. Why is that happening? I think we’ve earned a lot of trust from the players that, hey, this stuff is good, and let’s pour into it. And then the players earned our trust by executing it.

“And I've been saying since training camp, it's hard to tell the difference between our ones and our twos.”

Last season, the longest offensive play from scrimmage was a 73-yard pass from Ewers to running back Jonathan Brooks. This year, Manning fired a 75-yard rocket to Ryan Wingo. Manning also has a sensational 67-yard touchdown.

Manning also has completions of 56, 51, 46 and 40 yards. He was throwing so many deep balls against UTSA and Louisiana-Monroe that Sarkisian talked about getting Manning to use check-down throws and not go for broke all the time.

Ewers’ longest throw was a 49-yard completion to tight end Gunnar Helm. Ewers also has completions of 38, 37 and 33 yards. That’s not an inditement of Ewers’ arm strength. There was a plan of taking more deep shots with Manning against UTSA than Ewers did against No. 10 Michigan.

Helm, Wingo, Isaiah Bond and Matthew Golden all have at least four explosive plays on their resume so far this season. Sarkisian is expecting a lot more. The last three weren’t even on the roster a year ago.

“I think a lot of our players are playing with extreme confidence, and you can see that the receiver group, how the new numerous players with explosive plays and catches and touchdowns and things,” Sarkisian said.

“But again, there’s a credit to the frontline guys for pushing the guys behind them to go hard, whether that’s at quarterback, receiver, running back, whatever that looks like.”