Quinn Ewers, Texas cruise past Louisiana-Monroe, now comes the Alabama test

For Texas, it was imperative going into Saturday’s season opener that the Longhorns come out feeling healthy and optimistic. And with a win, of course.

It wasn’t perfect. Few openers are. But this was close. Quarterback Quinn Ewers looked comfortable in his UT debut, Bijan Robinson was Bijan and the defense and special teams both scored in a 52-10 rout over Louisiana-Monroe at Royal-Memorial Stadium.

It’s easy to dominate the team picked to finish dead last in the Sun Belt. Can Texas do this — or anything remotely similar — next week against the team picked to win it all?

Be careful what you ask for, but bring on No. 1 Alabama. It’ll be the first time a top-ranked team has played in Austin since No. 1 Ohio State gave Colt McCoy fits and won 24-7 on Sept. 9, 2006.

“Honestly, I didn’t mention anything about next week’s game to our guys,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “I haven’t mentioned that game since that game got put on our schedule and since I've been here.”

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Sarkisian said he’s got the utmost respect for Alabama’s coaching staff, but “we can’t get enamored with Alabama. We have to be enamored with us and what we need to do to play effective football next Saturday.”

Coach Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide had no trouble in their opener Saturday night in Tuscaloosa. Alabama beat Utah State 55-0. Quarterback Bryce Young, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, threw five touchdowns.

ESPN’s "College GameDay" will be on site. Texas officials announced that hip-hop artist Flo Rida will perform after the Alabama game. It’s up to the Horns to give fans something to shout about come the 11 a.m. kickoff.

“I just told the guys, like coach Sark told me, we’ve just got to focus on us,” Robinson said. “We can’t worry about the hype, the media, GameDay, we can’t focus on none of that stuff. We’ve got to focus on us.

Saturday was certainly a great start, quite literally. On the opening possession, Texas’ defense swamped ULM for a three-and-out.

On the punt, UT’s D’Shawn Jamison flashed forward and made a clean block, just as special teams coach Jeff Banks predicted would happen based off film study. Keilan Robinson was there for the scoop-and-score from six yards out, and the 2022 season was off and running. The near-sellout crowd of 94,873 was electrified.

Quinn-mania was running high outside the stadium. Some fans were already wearing No. 3 Ewers jerseys that came hot off the press — with players getting a share of the name, image and likeness pool, too. One fan in a No. 3 jersey wore a mullet wig while holding his young daughter’s hand.

“When I was running out of the tunnel, I took a couple of glances at the crowd, just to see what it was like,” said Ewers, who grew up always wanting to play for Texas. “Sark said to just kind of experience it because it’s all going to be over soon. It’s over in a blink of an eye. So just take it in.”

There was a noticeable buzz when Ewers came onto the field for his first possession. His first pass attempt was a deep ball intended for Xavier Worthy that didn’t connect. On the next play, he tried to thread the needle and threw an interception into coverage.

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“He just went back to the sideline, and he was like, ‘Hey, let’s just get it again on the next drive,’” Bijan Robinson said. “We were like, ‘Hey, let’s get it.’”

Texas players have praised Ewers for his even-keel approach. He simply goes back to work. On Texas’ next drive, he found Ja’Tavion Sanders down the sideline for a 19-yard touchdown. It was Ewers’ first touchdown pass and Sanders’ first touchdown catch as Longhorns.

Ewers got the ball out quick to Casey Cain for a 43-yard gain to set up Roschon Johnson’s 16-yard touchdown run. Ewers hit Worthy over the middle for 19 yards on a drive that netted a 41-yard field goal. Then, Ewers swung it to Bijan Robinson, who weaved in from 16 yards out, giving Texas a 31-3 lead.

Sarkisian’s play-calling was deliberate. Get the ball out of Ewers’ hand quick, get it to Texas’ playmakers and let them do their thing. His favorite throw was a 25-yard dart down the seam to Sanders early in the third quarter.

“I saw the replay and I was like, ‘Oh my God. Quinn, bro, that was a dime,’” Sanders said with a huge smile. “He was like, ‘I told you, bro. I’m going to put it where it needs to be every time.’”

Ewers completed 16 of 24 passes for 225 yards with two touchdowns and the lone pick. Robinson had 71 rushing yards on just 10 attempts as the Horns finished with 383 yards total.

Meanwhile, the defense was having a field day. It felt like DeMarvion Overshown was everywhere, as was Barryn Sorrell. Overshown had a team-high eight tackles (six solo) while Sorrell had six tackles and 1 ½ sacks.

Overshown said Sorrell was upset during the offseason with all the talk that Texas needed to recruit a new edge rusher or grab one in the transfer portal.

“I was one of the ones in his ear telling him that you should be (mad),” Overshown said. “You should be mad that they’re moving me to the edge, because that’s saying something.”

The Horns registered eight tackles for loss and held the Warhawks to 259 total yards. ULM got a fourth-quarter touchdown when most of Texas' second- and third-teamers were in the game.

“Some of that’s going to have some mistakes and failures, but hopefully we can learn from it,” Sarkisian said. “And they can understand what that’s all about when you actually get in the game, how critical it is to be right and to be on your stuff.”

Backup quarterback Hudson Card played most of the second half. He was 4-for-5 for 24 yards playing behind the second-team offensive line. Sark has said all along that Texas would need two quarterbacks to get through the season, so getting Card some playing time is understandable.

The only major setback was announced after the game when Sarkisian said tight end Jahleel Billingsley will be suspended six games for “an NCAA suspension” that happened before he arrived at UT. Billingsley transferred from Alabama. Also, suspended receiver Agiye Hall dressed and is now back with the team, Sarkisian said.

Here’s hoping Card had a better end of the night than Ewers did.

“How’d I get towed during the game,” Ewers tweeted not long after leaving the building.

The only team stronger than Alabama is UT parking, an entity that remains forever undefeated.

The Horns have a chance to beat one of them next week.

“I think that we’re getting really close as a team and having fun as a team,” Bijan Robinson said. “So, hopefully, this week coming up, we just go out there and just put our heads down and go hard.”

Contact Brian Davis by phone or text at 512-445-3957. Email bdavis@statesman.com or follow on Twitter via @BDavisAAS.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Quinn Ewers, Texas cruise past ULM, now comes the Alabama test