Texas starting quarterback Quinn Ewers is questionable for the Longhorns’ game this weekend against Louisiana-Monroe, coach Steve Sarkisian said on Monday.

Ewers, who suffered a strained oblique in the second quarter of the Longhorns’ 56-7 win over UTSA, left Saturday’s game early in the second quarter and didn’t return. Redshirt freshman Arch Manning relieved Ewers with four touchdown passes and a touchdown run and would make his first career start on Saturday if Ewers can’t go.

Ewers had been playing some of the best football of his career before the injury. He has completed a career-high 73.4 percent of his passes this season, threw for 691 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions and averaged 8.7 yards per attempt in eight-plus quarters of action. Entering last weekend, Ewers was the betting favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, per BetMGM.

Sarkisian said the injury was non-contact and Ewers felt pain as he threw a corner route for a 49-yard completion to Gunnar Helm. He tried to continue to play but had to come out of the game after the next snap.

“On the release, he just feels it, you know?” Sarkisian said of the play on which Ewers was injured. “I think what he thought was it was just going to kind of go away, so he stayed in for one more play and then realized, ‘I probably need to get this looked at, this doesn’t feel right.’”

If Ewers is unable to go, it will be the third consecutive season that he has missed a game with an injury. He missed three games in 2022 with a clavicle injury and missed two games last year with an AC joint sprain.

Sarkisian said they’ll monitor Ewers day-to-day and see how he feels. But based on how the quarterback handled his past two injuries, he’s confident that Ewers will effectively use any downtime he has and be ready once he’s cleared to return.

“He’s always staying dialed in,” Sarkisian said. “He’s also diligent with his recovery, and that’s why when he comes back, he comes back and performs at a high level.”

Regarding Manning’s performance on Saturday (he finished 9 of 12 passing for 223 yards), Sarkisian said the young quarterback looked “poised and composed.” Sarkisian said Manning made good decisions and was getting the ball to the right receivers when making his reads.

“There were some learning curves in there, a couple things to learn from, but at the end of the day, I thought he played at a high level,” Sarkisian said.

Sarkisian said they’ll adjust how many practice reps Manning gets with the first team as they monitor Ewers’ status. True freshman Trey Owens, the Longhorns’ third-string quarterback who made his career debut against UTSA, will also see increased work this week. Owens would serve as the backup to Manning if Ewers is unable to go.

Required reading

(Photo: Tim Warner / Getty Images)

Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark may owe her teammates a nice gift or dinner after they appeared to prevent her from getting a crucial technical foul on Sunday against the Dallas Wings.

A video posted on social media showed Clark walking back up the floor after a turnover. She looked up at the replay and then immediately started to mouth off to the referee. 

Kelsey Mitchell put her arm out to prevent Clark from heading over to the ref while Aliyah Boston had to pull Clark away and yell, “No,” in her face to keep her from getting the technical foul.

Another technical foul would have been Clark’s seventh of the season. It would have resulted in an automatic suspension and kept her out of the team’s final game of the regular season against the Washington Mystics.

“Well, I didn’t think they were going to give me a technical at any point tonight. I would have been really sad for people in Washington D.C.,” Clark said, via the Indy Star. “I didn’t want to do that. I tried my best, but my teammates do a really good job of that.”

CAITLIN CLARK TAKES SWINGS IN BATTING CAGE AT MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL GAME: ‘DINGER!’

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark reaches for the ball during a game against the Dallas Wings at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. (Grace Hollars/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

Phoenix Mercury players Diana Taurasi and Natasha Cloud and the Wings’ Teaira McCowan are the only players to have seven technical fouls this season. If Clark gets her seventh technical foul, she won’t be suspended for the eventual postseason matchup – whoever the Fever play.

Fever head coach Christie Sides credited “good team chemistry stuff” with how Boston and Mitchell prevented Clark from getting the technical foul.

Dallas Wings guard Jacy Sheldon defends Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark in Indianapolis, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Clark set a career high with 35 points in Indiana’s win.

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NEW YORK — Saturday’s drama between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox appeared as if it might carry over into the final game of the season between the two rivals, thanks to some pre-game comments from Red Sox manager Alex Cora.

The game itself, however, remained tame, as the Yankees pulled out a 5-2 victory, taking three of four from the Red Sox.

Prior to the game, Cora insinuated that starting pitcher Brayan Bello purposefully threw at Yankees superstar Aaron Judge in the sixth inning on Saturday as revenge for Gerrit Cole hitting Rafael Devers in the first. Cora was asked if he considered Saturday’s Devers’ intentional walk and hit-by-pitch incident a closed case.

“It was closed yesterday around the sixth inning,” Cora said. “We had our chance. It didn’t happen and we have to move on.”

Bello threw a 97.4 mph sinker behind Judge’s back on a 0-0 count; he then threw a 97.2 mph four-seam fastball far inside and off the plate.

“It’s baseball. He missed,” Judge said after Sunday’s game when asked about Cora’s comments. “Nothing I can do about it besides take it and go to first. It is what it is.”

Cora said he spoke with Judge after Saturday’s game and called it a “professional” conversation, but neither he nor Judge would divulge what was discussed.

“It was a good convo, we’ll kind of keep it at that,” Judge said.

On Sunday, Judge’s two-run homer in the third gave the Yankees a 4-0 lead. As he headed toward first, the Yankees slugger carried his bat nearly the entire way down the first-base line.

“It’s a big homer. We’re playing the Red Sox. This is a big rival, big game, big moment. I’m just having some fun with it there,” he said.

The homer helped squash any momentum the Red Sox were hoping to gain from the Saturday win.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on Sunday that he believes Cora was playing up the moment to help provide a spark for a team outside the postseason picture.

“I think it’s a manager that’s using that moment to rally his troops a little bit as they’re fighting for their playoff lives,” Boone said. “They’re playing for a lot over there. And I think it’s an opportunity to kind of galvanize them a little bit. Probably a little gamesmanship to it. So that’s part of it.”

Prior to Sunday’s loss, Cora had expressed hope that the Saturday drama would serve as springboard for his club. But Boston now sits 4 1/2 games back of the third American League wild-card spot while New York owns a three-game lead in first place in the AL East.

“I was talking to a veteran today, if this happens (making the playoffs), we’re going to look back at (Saturday) and we’re probably going to thank Gerrit Cole to get us going to be honest with you,” Cora said. “And hopefully it happens. Hopefully we can face them in the playoffs because he will have to pitch. But, we still have a long way. I’m not promising we’re going to make it to the playoffs, but if we do, I think everybody’s going to look back at Saturday and hopefully it happens.” 

Required reading

(Photo: Ed Zurga / Getty Images)