Sark: Ewers bounce-back showed ‘true character’

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Quinn Ewers settled into the kind of rhythm his Texas coaches and teammates are accustomed to Saturday night in a hard-fought 27-24 win over Vanderbilt.

And he did so on the heels of one of Ewers’ more forgettable weeks on the Forty Acres. Not only did he get benched in the first half of Texas’ 30-15 home loss to Georgia, but a false report surfaced on social media that Ewers was opting out for the remainder of the season and preparing for the NFL draft.

“If he plays like that for the rest of the year, we’re going to be OK. We’re going to be just fine,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said of Ewers, who completed 17 straight passes at one point and finished with 228 passing yards, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

Both of those interceptions came on tipped passes, the first one leading to a Vanderbilt touchdown giving the Commodores a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

But after that, Ewers led the Longhorns on three scoring drives, all ending in touchdown passes, the last two to DeAndre Moore Jr.

“It was normal for us. We had a really great week of practice, so that’s what I expected,” Moore said.

So did Sarkisian, who said Ewers’ resilience has been on display all season going back to him missing parts of three games with an oblique injury. The first half last week against Georgia was a disaster for everybody on the Texas sideline. After the Bulldogs went up 20-0 in the first half, Sarkisian replaced Ewers with Arch Manning, although Ewers returned in the second half.

“You can’t get worse than how it went for [Ewers] last week, especially in that first half, and then his ability to bounce back and show the resolve that he showed,” Sarkisian said. “I always say that the sign of the true character of a man is in the face of adversity, and that was a lot of adversity for him, a lot of adversity for us as a team coming off last week’s game.

“I think the way he responded was kind of indicative of how we responded as a team.”

Texas (7-1, 3-1) wasn’t able to put away No. 25 Vanderbilt until Moore recovered an onside kick with 44 seconds to play. The Commodores entered the contest ranked in the AP poll for the first time since the end of the 2013 season.

“These weeks are not easy when you get so emotionally invested into a game like you were last week and then you don’t play your best,” said Sarkisian, whose Longhorns won their ninth straight road game going back to the 2022 season. “It’s tough. It’s tough on coaches. It’s tough on a team to rebound, and I think about how many times have we seen a team lose a game like [Georgia] and then they get beat again the next week because they’re still going through it.

“I thought this game tonight was a culture win, a toughness win for us. … We knew it was going to take 60 minutes against this style of team. That was a good football team. They weren’t 25th in the country on accident.”

Even though it was technically a road game for Texas, the majority of FirstBank Stadium was decked out in burnt orange, as the Longhorns’ fans descended on Nashville for the first meeting between the teams since 1928 and Texas’ first SEC road contest.

The start to the game wasn’t what Ewers or anybody on Texas’ team wanted. On the game’s first possession, Ewers had a pass batted by Vanderbilt linebacker Langston Patterson and intercepted by cornerback Martel Hight at the Texas 31. Five plays later, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia sprinted around right end for an 18-yard touchdown.

“There were no ‘poor me’s going on,” Ewers said. “We just kept playing.”

Sarkisian isn’t sure that Ewers would have responded with such poise two years ago after such a shaky start.

“It’s just a real credit to him, even coming off of last week’s game, where when doubt creeps into your mind, that’s a killer,” Sarkisian said. “And I didn’t think there was a sliver of doubt in his mind. It was a bad luck [on the batted pass]. He made a great read, the ball got tipped and intercepted. He came right back out, believed in his preparation and the plan and really executed at a very high level.

“So I really want to credit him and his maturity, his belief in himself, his confidence, and I want to credit his teammates because I think all week those guys were making sure they were pumping him up and getting him ready to go.”

Moore, who finished with six catches for 97 yards, said his first touchdown catch came when Ewers audibled while Moore was in motion.

“I’m like, ‘OK, it’s man [coverage]. Let’s go get it. He called a slot fade and he put it up there and allowed me to go make a play,” said Moore, adding that’s not the first time Ewers has changed the play mid-motion.

“Yeah, he has the ability to do that, especially in this offense. Quinn is the president, so if he sees a look that he may not like, he can change it to something else just like that.”

Ewers admitted he was “itching” to get back out there in a game with his teammates after the Georgia loss last week.

“I think the credit goes to everybody not getting down after a loss that we had, and we came out here and we played our brand of football, especially in the first half,” Ewers said.

The Longhorns hurt themselves with penalties in the second half, and a second batted interception led to the Commodores’ second touchdown in the second half to make it a 24-17 game.

“We did a good job of just continuing to play,” Ewers said.

He also shook off the craziness of Monday when 247Sports said its Instagram account was hacked with the fabricated report that Ewers was shutting it down for the rest of the season at Texas coming off the Georgia loss.

“I mean, it was pretty random. I didn’t really know where they got that from or whether they got hacked or not. … It was definitely weird, and there’s not much else to say about it,” Ewers said.