Texas football QB Quinn Ewers still fighting through pain in practice

The question that all Texas football fans still want to be answered this week has to do with the health in the quarterback room heading into an important Big 12 matchup this weekend. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has another decision to make this week as to whether he will start redshirt freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers or junior Hudson Card against the West Virginia Mountaineers on Oct. 1.

For the last two weeks, we saw Sark and the Longhorns trot out Card as QB1 in the place of the injured Ewers. As the full-time starting quarterback in place of the injured Ewers, Card posted a record of 1-1.

Moreover, the hope is this week that we can see Ewers return to the lineup for the first time since the loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide on Sep. 10. Ewers originally sprained his clavicle in his non-throwing shoulder in the first quarter against the Tide. He returned to practice last week and apparently is splitting the first-team practice reps with Card as of earlier this week.

Conflicting reports in the last couple of weeks regarding the status of Ewers have caused some confusion as to when he could actually return. The original prognosis for his return was around four-to-six weeks coming out of the Alabama game.

But there were some more optimistic takes regarding Ewers’ recovery timeline that came about in the last week or so, leading to some belief that he could make his return on Oct. 1 against West Virginia.

And while that timeline could still come to fruition, it sounds like Ewers is still working through the rehab and recovery process in practice this week. A report from Anwar Richardson of Orangebloods on Sep. 28 (paid content) indicates that Ewers is still working through a lot of the pain as he recovers from this clavicle sprain.

QB Quinn Ewers still working through pain in his shoulder in practice this week for Texas football

Anwar reinforced that notion this week in his podcast, and on YouTube, mentioning that Ewers is still dealing with a lot of pain going through the throwing motion in practice.

The pain that Ewers is fighting through was also put on display when he was going through the throwing motion in warmups in Lubbock last weekend, which Anwar noted and was visible in another video that was posted by Orangebloods on social media.

To sum this up, the injury status of Ewers clearly might not be as hopeful as it once was earlier this week. I don’t know how much changed in the last few days, but he clearly still has some ways to go in the recovery process if the latest report regarding his status here is true.

Moreover, I definitely don’t want to rule out the possibility of his return this weekend against West Virginia. That certainly could still be plausible given how he has taken some of the first-team reps in practice this week.

We just probably won’t know who the starting quarterback will be for this game until at least a few hours before kickoff. That’s the MO for Sark so far this season to wait and release these key depth chart updates until a little bit before kickoff time on Saturdays.

Texas carries a record of 2-2 (0-1 Big 12) following the upset loss on the road to the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the Big 12 opener in Lubbock on Sep. 24, by the final score of 37-34 in overtime. Sark and the Longhorns will host West Virginia at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin on Oct. 1, with the kickoff time set for 6:30 p.m. CT.