Texas Football: Sunday Quinn Ewers injury update

The injury bug is biting No. 8 Texas football in a big way in the last few weeks. Texas suffered a bevy of injuries in its narrow 31-24 win on the road over the Houston Cougars on Oct. 21. The biggest injury Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian dealt with this weekend in the Houston game was redshirt sophomore quarterback Quinn Ewers.

Ewers suffered an apparent shoulder injury in the second half after taking a hit from Houston defensive end David Ugwoegbu. After the initial hit, it looked like Ugwoegbu took the worst of the contact as he was slow to get up.

But Ewers wound up taking the worst of the hit and went down the tunnel soon after taking that hit from Ugwoegbu. Redshirt freshman quarterback Maalik Murphy was thrown into action in the fourth quarter at a critical point in the game when Texas was tied 24-24 with Houston.

Murphy led the Longhorns to a score on his second drive of the game, where true freshman running back CJ Baxter Jr. punched the ball in on a 16-yard rushing TD. Texas escaped with a 31-24 win over Houston after the game-winning touchdown run from Baxter in the fourth quarter.

Texas football QB Quinn Ewers suffers a shoulder injury vs. Houston

Sark said in his postgame press conference on Oct. 21 that Ewers “has a hurt shoulder” and that “we’ll know more tomorrow”. Sark also specified that Ewers “tried to play through” the shoulder injury in the second half.

Ewers was in street clothes on the sideline after suffering this shoulder injury. And he was seen with a sling on his right arm after the game.

There was no definitive word from Sark after the game regarding the specific nature of Ewers’ injury. And it was reported by Danny Davis on Twitter/X on Oct. 22 that Texas “won’t release any official updates” on Ewers’ status during Sark’s press conference on Oct. 23.

Ewers will undergo an MRI on Sunday

CJ Vogel of TFB Texas reported on Oct. 22 (donor content) that Ewers will undergo an MRI on his shoulder on Sunday. Texas is reportedly evaluating Ewers for a shoulder injury, and there is no definitive timeline for his return to live-game action for the Longhorns.

The specific injury that Ewers is reportedly expected to have suffered is a separated shoulder. TFB Texas and Inside Texas/On Texas Football both reported that is the initial suspicion for Ewers’ injury that he suffered this weekend.

Murphy is expected to be QB1 if Ewers misses time

Murphy is reportedly expected to be Texas’ starting quarterback moving forward in Big 12 if Ewers misses extended time with the shoulder injury. But it’s noteworthy that Murphy was dealing with an ailment of his own in practice this week that was thought to potentially limit what he could do once he was forced into action in the Houston game.

There will be ongoing discussions about whether Murphy or true freshman quarterback Arch Manning will get the starting reps at quarterback for the rest of the season, depending on Ewers’ injury status moving forward.

The original plan was for Sark and the Longhorns to redshirt Arch during his first year in Austin. But that plan could change if Texas needs him to play multiple games down the stretch due to injuries to the other quarterbacks.