5 key injured Texas players heading into Mississippi State

Quinn Ewers, QB

Entering Texas's first game in the SEC this upcoming weekend, the status of redshirt junior starting quarterback Quinn Ewers remains uncertain. Ewers suffered an abdominal strain injury early in the second quarter of Texas's win over UTSA on Sep. 14.

He missed Texas's last game against ULM, giving way to redshirt freshman quarterback Arch Manning making the first start of his collegiate career last weekend. Manning led Texas to a 51-3 win in his first career start last weekend against ULM.

During his Monday press conference, Sarkisian said that Ewers' status will likely be "questionable" for this weekend's SEC opener against Mississippi State.

"If I had to put out [injury] report, he would be questionable for Saturday. We'll see how he goes throughout the week and monitor how he responds to tomorrow coming off today's practice."

- Steve Sarkisian on Quinn Ewers

It's noteworthy that Sarkisian said Ewers practiced on Monday for the Longhorns. Sarkisian and the staff will continue to monitor Ewers' health day-to-day entering the Mississippi State game this weekend.

Jelani McDonald, S

In his Thursday press conference last week before the ULM game on Saturday, Sarkisian provided injury updates for a handful of Texas players, including sophomore safety Jelani McDonald. Texas's second-year safety McDonald was limited in practice last week due to an injury.

McDonald is dealing with an ankle injury that kept him out of the last two games. That said, he was technically available for Texas's win over ULM last weekend. He was just kept on the sideline likely for precautionary reasons with the ankle injury.

"They were all, I guess, limited to some degree. I think all of those guys will kind of be game-time decisions, varying degrees."

- Steve Sarkisian

McDonald missed the last two games for the Longhorns. He played 30 defensive snaps over Texas's first two games of the season, registering four combined tackles, and one defensive stop.