As Quinn Ewers continues to heal from a strained oblique, redshirt freshman Arch Manning will start at quarterback for Texas football when the Longhorns make their Southeastern Conference debut.

Ewers was listed as "out" on the SEC-mandated availability report that was released nearly 90 minutes ahead of Saturday afternoon's game between No. 2 Texas (4-0) against Mississippi State (1-3) at Royal-Memorial Stadium. This game will be UT's first-ever conference contest in the SEC.

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Ewers was injured in the second quarter of a 56-7 win over UTSA on Sept. 21. He then sat out last week's rout of Louisiana-Monroe.

In the absence of Ewers, Manning threw for 481 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions. Manning also scored on a 67-yard run against UTSA. A five-star prospect during the 2023 recruiting cycle, Manning made his first career start in the ULM game.

Ewers was listed as "questionable" throughout the week on the Longhorns' availability report. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian told reporters this week that a decision about Ewers' status would be made on Friday.

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In his third season as the starting quarterback at Texas, Ewers has thrown for 691 yards and eight touchdowns while completing 73.4% of his passes. He will now have an additional two weeks to recover since UT has a bye scheduled for next week and won't play again until it meets Oklahoma in Dallas on Oct. 12.

On Saturday afternoon, Ewers joined safety Derek Williams Jr., deep snapper Tate Haver and running backs CJ Baxter, Christian Clark, Velton Gardner and Colin Page among the Longhorns listed as "out" on the availability report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Quinn Ewers injury update: Final update on Texas QB's availability