Dallas Turner says he had ‘no intent to hurt Quinn Ewers’

In a media availability on Tuesday, Alabama Crimson Tide linebacker Dallas Turner spoke publicly about the play that resulted in Texas Longhorns redshirt freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers leaving Saturday’s 20-19 loss to the Crimson Tide late in the first quarter.

“Honestly, it was no intent to hurt Quinn Ewers,” Turner said. “I feel like he’s a good quarterback, and I hope he has a very speedy recovery. But it was just a QB hit, that’s how I looked at it. So no intent to hurt him or anything like that, no dirty play.”

Following a 46-yard pass from Ewers to sophomore wide receiver Xavier Worthy down the sideline, Texas had the ball at the Alabama one-yard line with 45 seconds remaining in the first quarter. Head coach Steve Sarkisian called a pass play, but the protection quickly broke down, forcing Ewers to scramble and throw the ball away.

Just after releasing the ball, Turner hit Ewers and drove him into the ground on his left shoulder, leaving the Texas quarterback down on the field in pain for several minutes.

Turner was assessed a personal foul penalty for roughing the passer.

“Yeah, I was very surprised to see a flag after that, but that’s football. Just got to adjust to the game and learn from it,” Turner said.

Texas eventually tied the game at 10-10 on that possession, but Ewers was not able to return and could miss four to six weeks with an SC sprain, although Sarkisian said that Ewers is currently “day to day” and did not suffer any structural damage on the play.

Ewers was 9-of-12 passing for 134 yards before Turner’s hit.