What a turn of events it's been at Texas.
Through the first 14:29 of Saturday's game with then-No. 1 Alabama, it appeared Texas had one of the brightest young stars in college football. Redshirt freshman Quinn Ewers hit nine of his first 11 passes for 134 yards until his attempt to throw the ball away and escape Dallas Turner's oncoming rush resulted in a sprained clavicle.
Sophomore Hudson Card entered the game and performed admirably. The sophomore completed 14 of 22 passes for 158 yards and also scrambled for 20 yards. Card injured his ankle at some point during the game -- seriously, it's not clear when it happened; at one point he was moving fine, and in the next he had an obvious limp -- that got worse as the afternoon went on.
While Card finished the game, his availability for this Saturday's game was an obvious question.
And now, two days out from a trap game with defending Conference USA champion UTSA, it's no more clear who will play quarterback for Texas on Saturday. Which is exactly how Steve Sarkisian prefers it.
Sarkisian: "You guys can keep poking the bear on what I do at QB. At the end of the day, I'm not going to give you game-planning decisions on how we practice. There's a reason you guys don't come to practice. If I wanted you to know who took snaps, I'd let you come to practice."
— Joe Cook (@josephcook89) September 15, 2022
Sarkisian did not release a depth chart to open the season, so clearly part of this is a decided philosophical decision not to reveal any information he isn't required to.
But that's not all of it, because he did announce Ewers had won the QB1 job over Card back on Aug. 19, well before the Sept. 3 opener against ULM.
Part of this is gamesmanship to protect where his quarterback room sits at this particular moment.
Either Sark knows Card is going to start on a less-than-100 percent ankle, and doesn't want UTSA to know.
Or he knows third-stringer Charles Wright is going to start, and doesn't want UTSA to know. Once an Iowa State commitment, Wright turned down an opportunity to start for the Cyclones one day to become a depth quarterback for his home town team. The Austin High School has played in one game, and his next collegiate pass will be his first.
Or Sarkisian hasn't decided who will start, and he doesn't want UTSA to know that, either.
Regardless, it seems the Texas head coach is trying to drive home the point that the remainder of the team should execute to the best of its ability no matter who does or does not play quarterback.
Texas HC Steve Sarkisian asked if all three quarterbacks are available.
— Joe Cook (@josephcook89) September 15, 2022
"What I can clarify is all three of the guys got better this week, and I don't think it's my job to get on here and tell you guys what our gameplan is going to be."
All Sark said was that Ewers, Card and Wright got healthier/better this week. "I feel good about regardless of who's in there a quarterback that they've got the people and pieces around them to execute our offense at a high level."
— Brian Davis (@byBDavis) September 15, 2022
Best moment today was @CedGolden telling the coach, "I kinda like grizzly Sark." I'm pretty sure the coach himself was holding back a grin.
— Brian Davis (@byBDavis) September 15, 2022
Ewers is out this week -- at least, we all think he is. The most optimistic timeline would have him return Oct. 1 against West Virginia, and the least optimistic keeps him out until the Longhorns' Nov. 5 visit to Kansas State.
So we could be in for another month-plus of Grizzly Sark.