Analyzing Texas football’s QB room post-Card, Ewers injuries

A number of injuries to key figures in the quarterback room for head coach Steve Sarkisian, QB coach AJ Milwee, and the Texas football program have shaken up the outlook for this team ahead of the start of Big 12 play. Texas saw the top two quarterbacks on the depth chart experience various injury issues last weekend in the tough one-point loss to head coach Nick Saban and the No. 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.

Sark and the Longhorns saw redshirt freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers go down with a clavicle sprain near the end of the first quarter against Alabama on Sep. 10. Ewers suffered this clavicle sprain that will at least keep him out for the next few weeks from the early reports in the last couple of days since he suffered this injury against the Tide.

Meanwhile, Texas also saw junior quarterback Hudson Card experience an injury issue of his own. Card came up limping after taking a big hit on a sack against Alabama shortly after taking over for Ewers. And it looks like this right ankle sprain could limit Card for at least the next couple of weeks.

Diving deeper into Charles Wright and the rest of the Texas football QB room

With this in mind, here’s a look at an analysis of the Texas quarterback room following the injuries of Card and Ewers.

Cole Lourd

A former preferred walk-on in his second year with the Longhorns, the former three-star recruit and Los Angeles-Brentwood School product Cole Lourd is one name to watch.

If Card and Ewers are both out for at least the next two games, then Lourd could wind up being the third-string quarterback on the depth chart to open up Big 12 play. Lourd has yet to make it on a single quarterback depth chart in the last two seasons.

What the 6-foot-2 and 220-pound Lourd brings to the table is a quarterback with a high level of accuracy, good timing, and excellent footwork in the pocket. Lourd shows flashes of the makings of a blue-chip recruit on film from his sophomore and junior seasons in high school. But the COVID-19 pandemic stalled a lot of the momentum he had with top Group of Five and some Power Five programs on the recruiting trail in the fall of 2020.

Throughout most of spring and fall camp, Lourd was taking practice reps behind essentially everyone you see on this list. He was also the fifth or sixth quarterback in the pecking order in terms of the distribution of the practice reps at the position throughout last offseason. That came despite Sark mentioning Lourd among the “improving” quarterbacks that he saw during the 2021 offseason coming out of spring ball.

Lourd is an interesting quarterback talent. He even had an offer from the LSU Tigers and former head coach Ed Orgeron. A quarterback that once held offers from the likes of the Ole Miss Rebels, LSU, Louisiana Ragin Cajuns, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, and Liberty Flames, among other schools, is one that definitely has some raw talent.

Lourd is a name we will be paying attention to in practice in the next couple of weeks to see if he can make some noise and potentially move up the depth chart in the wake of some of the quarterback injuries coming out of the weekend.