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Ewers, Worthy, Murphy are standouts as White beats Orange 21-10 in Texas’ Spring game

Steve Habelby: Steve Habel04/15/23stevehabel
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AUSTIN – Expectations for success and a potential run to a Big 12 Conference title for the Texas football team were turned up a notch as the White team defeated the Orange 21-10 on Saturday as the Longhorns concluded Spring drills with a bang before a crowd of sun-splashed fans inside Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

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Quinn Ewers led the White to three first-half scores and ended up with 195 yards and a touchdown passing. He connected on 16 of his 23 throws and hit five different players. 

Xavier Worthy paced the receivers with four catches for 83 yards, while Jordan Whittington had five receptions for 59 yards. Georgia transfer Adonai Mitchell caught six throws for 58 yards and Ewers’ lone TD pass.

Jaydon Blue had 52 yards on 10 carries to lead the White’s rushing attack.

The Orange was led by Maalik Murphy’s 165 yards and one TD passing, with Arch Manning shrugging off a slow start to end up with 30 passing yards in 13 pass attempts. Converted wide receiver Savion Red was the Orange’s top rusher with 45 yards on nine carries.

The White finished with 303 yards of offense as compared to 274 for the Orange in a game where the Longhorns’ overall depth and balance was on ready display.

The White team had the only touchdown of the first quarter, marching 80 yards in 11 plays to a 1-yard scoring plunge at right guard on fourth down by CJ Baxter with 5:06 to play in the period. The drive was extended by a 14-yard Ewers-to-Mitchell connection on third down and highlighted by a 46-yard bomb to Worthy on an up-and-out route in which Ewers dropped his pass perfectly into the bucket.

The Orange cut its deficit to 7-3 with a 27-yard field goal from Will Stone at the 9:08 mark of the second quarter. The score was set up by a 35-yard catch-and-run from Murphy to Ty Woods on a wheel route out of the backfield. Murphy also had a 14-yard pass to DeAndre Moore Jr. on the drive that showed off his arm strength.

On the White’s ensuing drive Jaydon Blue found the end zone on a twisting, turning 31-yard run that pushed the lead to 14-3 with 4:24 to play in the half. Blue ran through a set of arm tackles by Jerrin Thompson and Terrance Brooks before sidestepping Malik Muhammed at the 5-yard line and waltzing into the end zone.

Ewers put his stamp on the half via an 11-play, 85-yard march that was culminated by a 13-yard touchdown pass to Mitchell, who climbed the ladder and caught the ball with his outstretched right hand in the end zone. The drive featured a 21-yard pass on third down to Whittington, and later a 22-yard throw to Worthy to convert a fourth down and 7 and extended the White’s lead to 21-3 at the break.

Ewers was 15 of 20 for 193 yards passing in over the first two quarters as the White outgained the Orange 256-101. Murphy hit of 4 of his 5 passes for the Orange for 56 yards while Manning was just 1 of 6 passing for 8 yards.

The Orange pulled to within 21-10 on a 79-yard touchdown bomb down the right sideline from Murphy to Johntay Cook II with 6:24 to play in the third quarter. The Murphy-to-Cook connection came one snap after Murphy’s deep pass over the middle of the field was dropped by Moore.

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Texas returns to the field for real on Sept. 2, when it opens the season at home against Rice.

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