UTSA vs. Texas: Ewers leaves with injury, Longhorns clobber Roadrunners 56-7 behind Arch Manning

AUSTIN (KXAN) — No. 2 Texas did what it was supposed to do Saturday against UTSA, but they lost a key player in the process.

The Longhorns throttled the Roadrunners 56-7 in front of 101,892 at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium, but starting quarterback Quinn Ewers exited the game in the second quarter with an abdominal strain and didn’t return.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said after the game the severity of Ewers’ injury “remains to be seen” but the staff doesn’t think there’s “anything structural or broken” and he’s not expected to be out very long.

“It was an odd play,” he said. “It was non-contact and we’re going to do everything we can to get him healthy as quickly as possible.”

The injury appeared to happen during a 49-yard pass to tight end Gunnar Helm, but Ewers took one more snap after that with a handoff to Quintrevion Wisner. After that play was over, Ewers started walking toward the sideline, motioned to the bench and then laid down on the artificial turf in pain. He spent some time in the sideline medical tent, then walked to the locker room with a towel over his head.

Backup Arch Manning entered and immediately made an impact, throwing for a touchdown on his first play. Manning rolled to his right and picked out De’Andre Moore for a 19-yard score to give the Longhorns a 21-0 lead. Manning electrified the crowd with a 67-yard touchdown run the next drive, pulling a handoff on a read option play. Manning finished 9 of 12 passing for 223 yards and four touchdowns before true freshman Trey Owens came in for mop-up duty.

“You never know as a backup when you’re going to be put in the game,” Sarkisian said. “He did some nice things for us, extended some drives on third down, so that was great experience for him.”

Texas didn’t run the ball on the first drive and Ewers completed 7 of 8 pass attempts to end with a 7-yard touchdown to Isaiah Bond. Ewers threw another touchdown to Johntay Cook II with 0:06 left in the opening quarter and Texas took a 14-0 lead. Ewers finished 14 of 16 passing for 185 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.

With Longhorns running back Jaydon Blue out with a sprained ankle, Jerrick Gibson got the bulk of the carries, gaining 75 yards on 13 carries. Bond caught five passes for 103 yards and two scores while freshman Ryan Wingo hauled in three for 127 yards, including a 75-yard scoring bomb from Manning in the third quarter.

Texas rolled up 614 yards of total offense including 427 through the air. The Longhorns averaged 17 yards per pass completion and 9.2 yards per play overall.

Defensively for the Longhorns, former Westlake standout Ethan Burke scored the game’s last touchdown with a 30-yard interception return. Burke chugged his way to pay dirt and “belly flopped” into the end zone as Sarkisian put it. He jokingly said that he’d work on the celebration with him.

“Everything was great until the belly flop,” he said, laughing. “It looked like half the team was running into the end zone to celebrate with him, and in a 56-7 game like that, you don’t see a lot of teams together like that. We were together all night long.”

Anthony Hill Jr. notched 11 tackles while freshman Collin Simmons had six. Texas had 12 tackles for loss.

For UTSA, its lone score came on a 53-yard run by Robert Henry in the second quarter. Quarterback Owen McCown, son of former NFL quarterback Josh McCown, finished 21 of 29 passing for 132 yards.

“I loved that we got to play a lot of players,” Sarkisian said. “We’re a little nicked up right now at some spots, so our depth is being tested, but it’s nice to have the depth that we have. It was a really good win for our team and I loved the way we worked.”

Texas (3-0) hosts Louisiana-Monroe next week. UTSA (1-2) hosts Houston Christian.