Steve Sarkisian, the quarterback whisperer, tries to fix Texas' Quinn Ewers after setback

In another world, Saturday would be a homecoming for Steve Sarkisian.

The Texas football coach and his Longhorns play at Kansas State on Saturday night. The Wildcats (6-2, 4-1 Big 12) are No. 13 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and the initial College Football Playoff rankings. Texas (5-3, 3-2) is locked in a three-way tie for third place in the Big 12.

This isn't Sarkisian's first trip to Manhattan. He once visited former Kansas State coach Bill Snyder on a recruiting trip.

Eventually, Sarkisian chose to transfer from El Camino College in California to BYU, where the quarterback spent the 1995 and 1996 seasons starting for the Cougars, and he ended his college career with a 19-15 win over Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl.

Sarkisian said that after the game, he received a nice note from Snyder.

"That just exemplifies what that program is built on," Sarkisian recalled on Monday. "There's a lot of integrity in the way they go about their business. I think they do it the right way."

In that Cotton Bowl game, Sarkisian threw two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, capping a two-year, 26-game run in which he threw for nearly 7,800 yards and 55 touchdowns. BYU went 21-5 with Sarkisian, so the times in Provo were good.

There were a few valleys among the peaks, though. He lost three fumbles in his second start at BYU in 1995, and he threw four interceptions against Utah. In BYU's only loss during the 1996 season, Washington sacked him eight times.

All of this is to say that nobody's perfect. And that's the message that Sarkisian recently relayed to Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers.

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Ewers — the redshirt freshman transfer from Ohio State who has started just five games — is coming off the first rough outing of his young career. His counting stats against Oklahoma State in Stillwater were fine: he threw for 319 yards and two touchdowns. But he threw it 49 times and completed only 38.8% of his passes and was intercepted three times. Texas lost 41-34.

When asked this week if he had ever struggled like that before, Ewers couldn't say. He was, after all, a five-star recruit in high school. He played well in wins over Louisiana-Monroe, Oklahoma and Iowa State and was breaking out in the Alabama game before injuring his clavicle late in the first quarter, which kept him out of the next three games.

So, how do you overcome adversity when you haven't faced much of it on the field?

Ewers said he watched film and came away with a couple of self-critiques. He stayed after practices during UT's bye week to throw extra passes with star receiver Xavier Worthy. Sarkisian also sat his young quarterback down last week for a talk.

"He was just talking about his past," Ewers said. "He might have had a bad game or whatever, he'd just put it in the past and did well the following week."

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Case in point? That 34-17 BYU loss to Utah in 1995. Sarkisian said that his mother left Cougar Stadium that day because he was getting booed so much by BYU fans. But what happened afterward?

"I turned around the next week and went and played Fresno State for a conference championship and went 31-of-34 for 400 yards and broke an NCAA record (for single-game completion percentage)," Sarkisian said. "One game should never define us. You've got to get back to work, you've got to get back on the horse and you've got to start riding again."

Texas has won the last five Kansas State meetings. On Saturday, it will face a defense that's allowing 221.6 passing yards per game, the third-best average in the Big 12. Texas Tech's Donovan Smith and Oklahoma's Dillon Gabriel had 359- and 330-yard days against the Wildcats, but Kansas State also has held five starting quarterbacks to below 200 yards.

Texas players said this week they have confidence in their quarterback.

On Monday, running back Bijan Robinson and wide receiver Jordan Whittington both noted that Ewers looked good in practices during the bye week.

"He looks like himself," Robinson said. "There's not much that can really get to him. It's really just good seeing him go out there and do what he does. There's no pressure for him, he knows that. He just needs to go out there and perform."

Said Whittington: "He ... was really dominant in practice, was hitting all the throws. This week, he's just being that leader that he's always been. I'm excited to see him play Saturday."

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Ewers has thrown for 1,139 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions, and he has completed at least 65% of his passes in four of his five games. If he is to bounce back in Manhattan, reestablishing a rapport with Worthy will help.

Off the field, Ewers and Worthy have established a can't-miss connection. They're roommates. They've even done NIL commercials together for Sonic and Fortnite.

But that connection was missing in Stillwater. Worthy was targeted 16 times in the loss. He only caught four of them. On the first snap of the game, Ewers threw behind Worthy on a crossing route. His second pass was a misfire in the direction of Worthy that Oklahoma State picked off. And in the fourth quarter, Worthy wasn't able to properly track a Ewers pass that would have resulted in a go-ahead touchdown for the Longhorns.

"It's not the way we wanted it, but we learned a lot," Ewers said. "We'll see what happens this week."

Saturday's game

Texas at No. 13 Kansas State, 6 p.m., FS1, 104.9, 105.3 (Spanish), 1260, 99.3, 98.5

Scouting Kansas State

Last year: 8-5, tied for fifth in the Big 12 (4-5); beat LSU in the Texas Bowl

A tale of two quarterbacks: Adrian Martinez, the former Nebraska quarterback who took over starting duties after transferring in to Manhattan, was injured two weeks ago. He missed last week's game as backup Will Howard powered Kansas State's 48-0 win over Oklahoma State, which had knocked out Texas the week before. We don't know who'll get the start on Saturday, and that's the problem for Texas, which has had to prepare for two distinctly different quarterbacks; Martinez is a runner, Howard a passer.

Three players to watch: (1) RB Deuce Vaughn, a do-everything back who trails Texas' Bijan Robinson by only 15 yards in this year's Big 12 rushing yardage race; (2) DE Felix Anudike-Uzomah was a preseason All-American and has 7½ sacks, which is second-most nationally; (3) S Josh Hayes, who will be playing in his 63rd career game, is a sixth-year Virginia transfer who's been named the Big 12's defensive player of the week once this season.

FYI: The Wildcats' two losses this season have been to teams currently ranked No. 7 and No. 19 in the country. ... Kansas State became bowl-eligible last week; this will be the third bowl trip in the last four years. ... Kansas State is allowing just 17.3 points per game this season, and so far every Big 12 team it has faced has been held below its season average. (Texas, by the way, is scoring 36.4 points a game.) ... Kansas State is for sure a first-half team; the Wildcats have outscored opponents 164-60 so far in the first half, the widest margin of scoring among all Big 12 teams.

Rich Tijerina

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Bye week, Kansas State game offer Texas' Quinn Ewers a chance to reset