On Monday, Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian wasn't ready to guarantee that Quinn Ewers will start at quarterback when the Longhorns face rival Oklahoma this weekend.

Sarkisian feels good about Ewers, who hasn't played since straining his oblique in the second quarter of a game Sept. 14 against UTSA. Ewers practiced three times last week and again on Monday. Sarkisian said he'd start Ewers if Monday's schedule featured the 120th all-time battle between UT and OU instead of press obligations, but he's taking a wait-and-see approach since the Longhorns and Sooners won't meet at the Cotton Bowl until Saturday afternoon.

"We're going to monitor him daily just to see how he continues to progress," Sarkisian said.

25 STARTS IN: How Quinn Ewers compares to recent Longhorns greats

If needed, Sarkisian won't hesitate to insert Arch Manning into the Red River Rivalry. A redshirt freshman, Manning shined in his role as Ewers' understudy. Manning accounted for five touchdowns after relieving Ewers in a 56-7 win. Following a ho-hum first start against Louisiana-Monroe, Manning completed 26-of-31 passes and threw for 325 yards against Mississippi State.

Despite the performance of Manning, Sarkisian has been seemingly deliberate in how he's talked about his two quarterbacks over the past few weeks. There is no controversy in Austin:

"I think we have a national championship-caliber team, and (Quinn's) the quarterback of that team," Sarkisian said Sept. 19.

"What a luxury to have a player of (Manning's) caliber as our backup quarterback," the coach stated Sept. 28 after a 35-13 win over Mississippi State.

"I couldn't ask for more to have a third-year starter at quarterback for us and getting healthy and ready to come back, as well as having a backup who now has gotten an immense amount of experience that we may have to lean into again later in the season," Sarkisian told reporters last week.

"It's just me being honest. I sleep better when I'm honest," Sarkisian said Monday. "That's how I genuinely feel. Quinn has earned and deserved that right to be our starting quarterback. Arch has continued to work really hard, and we're fortunate to have him and the player that he is and the leader that he is as well. It's a very fortunate situation that we're in that again, it doesn't happen very often the way that it does, but we happen to be in that position right now."

Ewers grew up less than 50 miles away from the Cotton Bowl, and he has fared well in his two starts against Oklahoma. Two years ago, Ewers returned from a shoulder injury and threw four touchdown passes as UT recorded a 49-0 victory, the most-lopsided of its 63 wins over Oklahoma. Ewers was picked off twice last year by the Sooners, but he also recorded 346 passing yards and a 83.8 completion percentage in a 34-30 loss.

Ewers was not made available to speak Monday. That left a few teammates to assess the confidence level of a quarterback who hasn't played in nearly a month.

"Quinn is such a confident and comfortable leader," junior safety Michael Taaffe said. "Being in that quarterback position, you have to have that type of skill set to just be confident and calm. Not everybody has it, but Quinn 100% has that to where no moment is too big for him, no moment is too small for him, and the way that he leads is really attractive for us."

Said senior center Jake Majors: "Quinn's a high, competitive guy. He wants to be out there with his team that he's helped mold and put together with this culture. I think it also just kind of speaks on his character on how patient he is, how he's willing to get this extra rest, get this extra treatment to make sure that he's good to go."

Las Vegas doesn't seem to care whether Ewers or Manning plays this weekend. Ranked No. 1 in the US LBM Coaches Poll, Texas (5-0, 1-0) was listed Monday as a 14.5-point favorite over No. 16 Oklahoma (4-1, 1-1).

The Longhorns, though, weren't ready to take the bait Monday. Texas linebacker David Gbenda asked a reporter to explain what it meant to be a two-touchdown favorite. Tight end Gunnar Helm said the betting line didn't matter.

During his press conference, Sarkisian pointed out that nine of the past 10 showdowns at the Cotton Bowl between Texas and Oklahoma have been decided by eight points or less. The coach also shrugged his shoulders when gambling talk was brought up.

"It's a rivalry game," Sarkisian said. "We're favored or we're not, it doesn't matter. Records and things don't matter in games like this."

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas vs Oklahoma: Longhorns optimistic about Quinn Ewers' status