Quinn Ewers was so close.
He had everything going for him. He had the wins, he had the stats, he had the talent. He loved the University of Texas and literally poured his blood, sweat and tears into making the Longhorns the best team they could be. The only thing he just could never seem to get was the love of the Texas fan base.
Ewers announced Wednesday afternoon that he is headed off to the NFL.
"My entire life, I have dreamed about playing football on the 40 Acres," Ewers said in his goodbye video. "With prayer and careful consideration, I'm officially declaring for the NFL draft."
This is a move that has been expected from the moment he announced almost a year ago that he was coming back for the 2024 season. This was supposed to be the season that the Horns took that next step – right the wrong of a 13-yard pass that was batted away in last season’s College Football Playoff semifinal. Instead, it ended with another semifinal loss after Ewers’ former Ohio State roommate, Jack Sawyer, crashed into his side, dislodging the football.
So close.
In many ways, it’s puzzling that Ewers isn’t being hailed as a Texas hero after helping turn the program around.
He certainly won enough games. Ewers leaves Austin as the third-winningest quarterback in UT football history behind only Colt McCoy and Vince Young.
The Horns are 21-5 over the last two seasons with Ewers under center. In that time, they have made the college football playoffs both years. They won the Big 12 championship in their final season in that conference. They nearly won the SEC title in their first season in the new conference, losing to the Georgia Bulldogs in overtime.
Ewers also leaves the 40 Acres as the third most prolific passer in UT history with 9,128 yards passing (behind the aforementioned duo of McCoy & Young).
He’s also third in touchdown passes with 68 (behind McCoy and Sam Ehlinger). That includes 27 straight games with a passing touchdown – the longest active streak in the FBS.
There’s not much more he could have done on the field to engender the fans’ love.
So why aren’t Texas fans prostrating themselves, wailing in admiration and pain at the loss of one of the best to ever play the position?
Oh sure, there are plenty of fans – most probably – who appreciate Ewers and all he has done for their beloved Longhorns. But appreciation is not the same thing as love.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Probably the single best explanation for the lack of adoration that I can come up with is that Ewers just never seemed to live up to the hype that surrounded him when he left Southlake Carroll as the number-one player in the country.
Again, Ewers is basically the third most accomplished quarterback in UT football history. But being third best is not what is expected of you when you are the number one player in the country.
Caleb Williams was in that same class as the sixth-highest-ranked player. He went on to ditch OU and win a Heisman Trophy at USC. He also went number one overall in last year’s NFL draft.
JJ McCarthy (#45 overall in the class of 2021) was spurned by his dream school of Ohio State, probably because Ewers signed with the Buckeyes coming out of high school. McCarthy repaid tOSU by signing with Michigan and then beating the Buckeyes all three years he was a starter in maize and blue. McCarthy was the number nine pick in the draft and is collecting a paycheck from the Minnesota Vikings.
Ewers will, in all likelihood, not come close to being a top-10 pick in the draft like the two guys who were below him in the recruiting rankings.
Is it Ewers’ fault that so much was expected of him? Of course not. Did he end up frustrating some fans who expected so much of him? You bet he did.
Again, that’s not Ewers’ fault, but he paid the price anyway.
There were plenty of Texas fans who would not have contributed a nickel to retain Ewers after his redshirt freshman season. The QB showed up out of shape and did not have a full grasp of the playbook.
As a result, Ewers completed just 58 percent of his passes for 2,177 yards, 15 touchdowns and six interceptions for a 132.6 rating.
Not so close.
But you have to give the kid credit. He re-dedicated himself in the offseason, lost the baby weight and became immersed in Sarkisian’s NFL offense. It paid off with a big jump in completion percentage, yards, and touchdowns over the next two years.
Do most fans give him credit for remaking himself? Some, but not so much.
THE ARCH EFFECT...
It would be easy to say that Ewers was looking over his shoulder at Arch Manning, but that probably wouldn’t be accurate.
I’m sure Manning helped push Ewers to be better, but I don’t think he was ever worried about the next Manning QB prodigy overtaking him. Sark made it clear from the get-go that this was Quinn Ewers’ job.
That remained true all the way up until the final play in this year’s Cotton Bowl.
(We’re going to ignore the fact that Ewers was temporarily benched during the first game against Georgia this season.)
For the most part, Ewers was Sark’s ride-or-die as QB 1.
"I'm super proud of Quinn," Sarkisian told reporters. "He's taught me a lot, probably unknowingly to him, because what he went through every year dealing with injury, what he goes through where I don't know if he'd ever live up to the standards of what everybody thinks he's supposed to be. But at the end of the day, all he did was show up every day and work and be a great leader and be a great teammate... You can ride that emotional roller coaster of whatever you think public opinion could be, and that could be the opinion of one or a hundred or whatever.
"But this guy never did that. All he did was come to work every day. All he did was be a great teammate. All he did was work on his craft, get himself as healthy as he could when he was injured, and then show up when it was time to show up."
Sark’s faith in Ewers helped keep the QB competition from becoming an issue.
But you also have to give Ewers credit for not letting it become an issue. Ewers embraced Manning and worked with him.
“These guys are great, great friends. Nobody gets along better,” Sarkisian said of his quarterbacks during the SEC Media Days. “There’s a real level of appreciation for what each guy is doing. Because they know the journey, they know the path, they know how we coach him. From Archer’s perspective, he’s watching Quinn have to go through some of the adversity, having a fight through injury, having to deal with the criticism of being the quarterback of Texas, so to see him have success, I think Arch is fired up for Quinn.”
Still, Sark and Ewers had to have noticed the roar of the crowd every time Manning took the field. The fans have already given Manning more love than Ewers ever received.
THE LOVE OF HIS TEAMMATES
It’s not just his head coach, Quinn Ewers has earned the love and admiration of his teammates as well.
“He has a lot of haters, he has a lot of love. But I love that dude all the way to the fullest,” said Jahdae Barron.
Barron credits Ewers with changing his life.
Ewers hasn’t just led the team on the field, he has also helped lead a team bible study.
"It's just been super cool to see the amount of guys that have really let God come into their heart, and me being part of that, and Jahdae being part of that," Ewers told media members. "It's kind of like a domino effect in the locker room."
Ewers credits his faith with being able to handle all of the ups and downs that has come his way during his time in Austin.
“Adversity is going to strike and at the end of the day, it’s how you come back and how you respond,” Ewers said after this year’s Red River Shootout win. “It’s 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react. So I just lean on Jesus, and He just continues and continues to [pull] me through adverse times.”
That faith also explains why Ewers doesn’t seem as upset as one might expect at not being loved and adored.
“What helps me out is I’m not trying to please anybody. I’m not trying to please people who breathe one breath at a time,” Ewers said after beating Michigan in week two. “I’m just trying to please Jesus. He controls all breaths. And when you truly believe that, when you truly know that, I think I allow myself to fully play clear-minded.”
Ewers may not be seeking love from the fans, but it would be nice if he got a just a little.
All he’s done is pour his blood, sweat and tears into this program.
RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CFP:
- Remember when all of those people were complaining about who was in and who was out in the new 12-team CFP? Boy, those were crazy times! It turns out, the best teams were still in the playoffs and no matter who wins next Monday, there won’t be anyone questioning whether they are legit champs.
- Should Ohio State win, they will have beaten half of this year’s playoff field. Indiana and Penn State during the regular season and Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame in the playoffs. The Buckeyes won’t go down in history as an all-time great team if that happens, but they absolutely will have earned the title.
- All season long I kept writing that Texas should play to win the SEC title and don’t worry about trying to get that fifth seed. I think I stand vindicated. Texas would have avoided Ohio State in the semifinal if it had won the SEC. The Horns would have been on the Penn State/Notre Dame side of the bracket. Frankly, I would have liked UT’s chances to make it to the title game in that scenario.
- I said prior to the Cotton Bowl that I just struggle to imagine Will Howard being a national champion quarterback … but I can’t picture Riley Leonard as a big winner either. Both of these teams will hoist the trophy based on their defense, more than anything else.
TWEETS OF INTEREST:
Michael Huff is a college football hall of famer!
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The Texas women’s basketball is not to South Carolina’s level yet, but star guard Rori Harmon still has faith in this staff.
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People who aren’t from the U.S. really struggle to understand how so many people can get excited about college sporting events … until they see them.
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We are just a little more than two weeks away from our first look at the Jim Schlossnagle-led Texas baseball team. If you aren't excited about the upcoming baseball season, what is the matter with you?
Side note, I attended “Camp Brisket” which was held at Texas A&M last weekend. One of the Aggies there was gloating about Texas’ loss to Ohio State, in part, because it is Schloss’s new school.
Yeah, they’re still not happy about that.
Side, side note, I will write about the Camp Brisket at some point in the future. It was a really cool event.
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I mean … what the what?
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