4 bold predictions for Texas football vs. UL-Monroe

Texas gets a big first-half lead, but Quinn Ewers stays in during the second half

Clearly, the player that the Longhorns faithful are most excited to see donning the burnt orange for the regular season opener this weekend is the new starting quarterback and former Ohio State Buckeyes redshirt freshman transfer Quinn Ewers.

After getting the starting nod coming out of fall camp over junior quarterback Hudson Card, Ewers sounded more confident and settled in for the last week or so of practice before game-week preparation began a few days ago. That is obviously a good sign as Ewers readies up for what will soon be a really difficult September slate for him and the Longhorns.

Partially due to that difficult September slate in the three weeks following the opener against ULM, I believe Sark and this staff want to get Ewers as many reps as possible in a few different schematic looks to get him comfortable taking live-game snaps.

While I don’t necessarily think we’re going to see anything too off-kilter or tricky this weekend from the offense schematically, Ewers is probably going to stay in the game longer than the first-team quarterback usually would in this situation. That is, of course, assuming that Texas does have a commanding first-half lead by multiple possessions.

All in all, we could see Ewers in the game at least a couple of drives after Sark yanks the rest of the first-team offense.

I do think we are going to see Card getting at least a few drives worth of reps this weekend at quarterback. Murphy and/or Wright also have a chance to get some late reps in this game. But Ewers is probably going to be in the game for at least 30-40 minutes, no matter the differential on the scoreboard.