Steve Sarkisian reveals all Texas players practiced despite injuries
Texas has had several players banged up for much of the season, but it appears as though the Longhorns are finally starting to get close to full strength.
Steve Sarkisian announced on Monday that all Texas players were able to practice on Friday for the first time in a while.
The Longhorns are coming off of a 33-30 win over Kansas State and will play TCU on Saturday.
“I’d say this, probably the thing that was the most encouraging thing for me today – everybody practiced,” Sarkisian said. “That was awesome. We’ve gone about a month now, or so, where certain guys have been out, certain guys have been limited. The beauty of today’s practice – everybody was back out there.”
Sarkisian was asked in particular about offensive lineman Kelvin Banks Jr. and defensive back Jalen Catalon. Sarkisian provided an update on those two and others.
“Catalon was out there, [Kitan] Crawford was out there, Kelvin was out there, Christian Jones was out there. So that was a real positive.”
While all of those players were able to practice, Sarkisian added that there’s no guarantee they will all be able to play this weekend.
“Naturally, as the week goes on, we’re going to have to monitor all of these guys and figure out who can really contribute to the game and then how much and what is that going to look like,” Sarkisian said. “But for a Monday, for them to all be out there today, was really, really encouraging for me.”
Steve Sarkisian labels Quinn Ewers ‘day-to-day’ after throwing football
Another player who is continuing to make progress is Texas starting quarterback Quinn Ewers.
Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday that Ewers is “day to day” and threw the ball Monday morning, according to Gerry Hamilton of On3.
Quinn Ewers has been out since getting injured on Oct. 21 against Houston with an AC joint sprain in his right shoulder.
So far this season, the sophomore has passed for 1,915 yards and 13 touchdowns, with three interceptions.
Texas is 8-1 on the year and beat Kansas State 33-30 this past weekend. The Longhorns have turned to Maalik Murphy at quarterback with Ewers out. Murphy was 19-for-37 passing for 248 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions last weekend against the Wildcats.
Sarkisian said following the win over Kansas State on Saturday that Ewers was making progress.
“Quinn’s update, you know, he’s moving in the right direction,” Sarkisian said postgame. “How quickly, I don’t exactly know yet. I know this much, our team is fighting through a lot of stuff from an injury standpoint. We didn’t have Christian Jones all day today. Kelvin Banks went down Hayden Conner had to go to tackle, you know, Ethan Burke was out, he was back in. You know, Kitan Crawford wasn’t able to go today.
“So I think that speaks to the depth of this team. And it’s one thing to have depth. It’s another to have the depth and those guys being prepared to play not only for themselves, but the coaches having faith in them to do that.”