Ewers practices Monday, Sark 'impressed' with recovery; 1st SEC injury report out Wednesday

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Whether Quinn Ewers suits up and plays in the Southeastern Conference opener Saturday for the No. 1 Texas Longhorns is still up in the air, but head coach Steve Sarkisian said he was impressed with Ewers' practice Monday.

During his weekly press conference Monday following practice, Sarkisian stood on Ewers' status for the game as questionable, but he's improving. He said he needs to see how Ewers responds in practices during the week to determine Saturday's availability.

"He's got to do enough to show me that he can play," Sarkisian said. "Can he execute the game plan? I want to make sure he's healthy enough to play at a high level, so I need to see how he responds to Tuesday and Wednesday, which are heavy days for him. He's been getting incrementally better day by day. Today was a good start."

The picture will become clearer Wednesday when SEC teams submit their injury reports and they're released to the public. Sarkisian also meets with media members via Zoom on Thursdays during the week, typically when he makes the call about who is available for the following Saturday.

Ewers has missed time the past two seasons with injuries, and upon his return, he's played well and led the Longhorns to wins. Sarkisian said his relationship with Ewers is one that both are honest with each other when it comes to evaluating how the injuries affect the team.

"The beauty of it for Quinn and I has been our time together," Sarkisian said. "Him being honest with me is his best interest and our best interest. I'll do everything in my power to put him in the best position for him to be successful if he plays. Our history together is the most beneficial thing going for us this week."

Why did the SEC implement the weekly injury report?

The SEC announced earlier in the season that all teams would be required to submit injury reports the Wednesday before conference games. It's a similar protocol to the NFL and Sarkisian said he thinks it's a good thing to get all the injuries and availability of players out there.

"This is so we can minimize the leaks in all of our buildings from a gambling perspective," Sarkisian said. "Everyone wants to know the truth about who's playing and who isn't and everyone is calling student trainers or student managers to find out who practiced. If this minimizes them talking to people, I'll just give the report. It is what it is. That's why the NFL has done it."

Sarkisian said he'll monitor the other injury reports, but he's hesitant to put his full stock in them because they can still be manipulated to a certain degree in hopes of gaining a competitive advantage. It's not necessarily against the rules, but it's more gamesmanship.

"I'd love to say that everyone has a moral code and they're going to put down exactly what it is, but I'm not sure everyone operates that way," he said. "People are going to look for an advantage somewhere in all of this."

Sark's analysis on Arch Manning's first start

Sarkisian mentioned Manning's growth after Saturday's 51-3 win over Louisiana-Monroe and how that helped him move past throwing an interception on the first drive of the game. This season is only Manning's second in the program, and while he got a bit of a head start enrolling in time for spring practices last season, he's still adjusting to the next level.

"A year ago, after that pick, that might have taken him a minute to rebound from," Sarkisian said. "I thought he responded really well mentally. I thought his poise and composure was really good. Even after the pick near the end of the first half, to come back in the second half and play like he did was impressive to me. Arch believes in his ability, and we're going to reap the benefits from that. As he continues to grow, he's going to learn the value of some of the explosive plays on the perimeter on check downs."

One of the main jobs of a quarterback is to quickly process mistakes, learn from them, correct them and then move on. It's tough for younger quarterbacks to do that for a variety of reasons, but Sarkisian said that how Manning approaches it is impressive.

"I've seen a lot of young quarterbacks have a rough start, and then that turns into a rough game," Sarkisian said. "It was a little bit of a rough start for him, but he rebounded and did some nice things for us."