When we talk about the greatest quarterback play in the history of the Texas program, the list begins and ends with Vincent Paul Young Jr.
For my money, he's the greatest college football player I've ever seen with my own two eyes.
Beyond Young, there's a second tier of all-time quarterback greatness on the 40 Acres that centers around the likes of Bobby Layne, James Street and Colt McCoy. Of this group, Layne and McCoy have their numbers retired, which would seem to indicate that the second tier should include only them, but Street's national title and perfect 20-0 record as a starter gets him a seat at the table for my money.
Once we get to the third tier of UT's all-time quarterback play, we're talking about the likes of James Brown, Sam Ehlinger, Chris Simms and Major Applewhite.
All of this leads us to Texas junior starting quarterback Quinn Ewers, one of the current cover boys on the new NCAA College Football Game. As the owner of the last Big 12 championship trophy the Longhorns will ever compete for, along with a championship game MVP belt to boot, the former Southlake Carroll star and 5-star prospect put his name in tier three a season ago. Others might disagree, but the championship glory from a season ago puts him ahead of everyone in tier three, except for James Brown. I find myself going back and forth between those two in such a way that my personal top 5 list probably looks like this:
1. Young. 2. McCoy. 3. Layne, 4. Street. 5a. Brown. 5b. Ewers.
Of course, Ewers still has a season to go in his Texas career and when you consider the success he's expected to have in 2024, along with his potential first-round status in next year's NFL Draft, it's easy to see him overtaking Brown for the No. 5 spot when the eventual dust settles on his career.
The big question I have is whether he can crack the top 4 and enter Mount Rushmore Texas QB status. Also, the more I think about it, I find myself wondering if he can take down McCoy for the No. 2 overall spot on the list.
On the surface, it seems obvious that winning the Heisman Trophy or winning a national title this season would be the surest ways to claim the No. 2 spot because those are both things that McCoy ended up coming short of in his career, as he painfully finished as a runner-up for both. You can set your watch to the fact Ewers' jersey number will be retired if he accomplishes the thing that he's a co-favorite to accomplish (along with Georgia's Carson Beck) coming into the season.
Make no mistake about it, for all of the Arch Manning discussion that takes place in Austin and all over the nation, it's Ewers who enters the 2024 season with a true shot at football immortality.
Will it happen? At the risk of being shunned by the Orangebloods community, I still have my doubts.
When we look back at Ewers' 2024 season, you'll find that he failed to break a 164-game rating in seven of his last eight games. Take a look at the numbers:
vs. Washington: 125.6
vs. Oklahoma State: 183.0
vs. Texas Tech: 133.7
at Iowa State: 161.2
at TCU: 151.3
at Houston: 163.2
vs, Oklahoma: 160.4
vs. Kansas: 153.1
For most of his sophomore season, Ewers was the king of being very good, as he lived in the 150s and 160s in terms of quarterback efficiency in seven of his first nine games, but rarely did he go into the stratosphere that a player like McCoy lived in during the 2008 season. It's the final step in his college evolution that Ewers still needs to take.
The step up from very good to flat-out great is probably the most difficult one that a college quarterback can attempt to take. With just a little bit of improvement, he's should be knocking on the door. Yet, there are no sure things in the lives of college quarterbacks. Brown ended up being injured for much of his final season in Austin, while McCoy never scaled the heights in 2009 that he reached in 2008.
My instincts tell me that Ewers can absolutely pull this off, especially when you consider the improvements that he made from 2022 to 2023, but it's not the kind of certainty that would allow me to write it in ink instead of pencil. There's so much turnover at the wide receiver and tight end positions that will impact him that you kind of have to wait and see a little with the offense. There's also a daunting schedule that will see him play in Ann Arbor, at home against the sport's current giant, the little game in the Cotton Bowl and a couple of very tricky rivalry road games. Plus, there's the elephant in the room ... he has to stay healthy.
Yet, there's no getting away from the fact that there's an opportunity in front of him that doesn't come around every season. If all goes right, he'll finish his college career with a seat on Mount Olympus. At worst, he'll finish his career hanging out with The Godfather of College Football.
I can't wait to see how the story unfolds.
No. 2 – Speaking of greatness ... let's talk about the Texas offensive line ...
It's not just Ewers that is being talked about in rarified air these days.
Just last week, On3 listed the Texas offensive line as the second-best unit in college football, ahead of the likes of Alabama and Georgia.
Is this too much, too soon for this group?
From my perspective, it's a group with one great player (Kelvin Banks), one very good player (D.J. Campbell), one pretty good player (Jake Majors), one might be good player (Cam Williams) and one pretty big question mark (Hayden Conner). Only one of these players earned 1st- or 2nd-team All-Big 12 honors in 2023.
It says a hell of a lot about the work Kyle Flood is doing that this group is being thought of in these types of terms, but if the Texas offensive line is truly going to be one of the best two or three units in college football, the following must occur:
a. Campbell emerges as a great player.
b. Majors has his best season
c. Williams matches the level of play set by 2024 fourth-round pick Christian Jones
d. Conner (or someone else) takes a big step up at left guard.
All of those things could happen, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that they've already happened.
No. 3 - Updated Scholarship Board ...
A few things stand out when looking at the scholarship board following the commitments of Jay'Vion Cole and Jermayne Lole.
a. The Longhorns have 11 seniors on defense, including five defensive tackles, while only five are on the offensive side of the ball.
b. The Longhorns are going to have to go strong in the Portal at defensive tackle in 2025 all over again because the depth chart looks potentially dire of proven commodities once the seniors are removed from the table. It's unlikely that the Longhorns will get the kind of help through recruiting in the 2025 recruiting class that they will need to avoid needing to go through the Portal.
c. The Longhorns might need to go through the Portal next season for linebacker help. It's hard to say what a group with Anthony Hill and unproven players like Liona Lefau, Derion Gullette and TyAnthony Smith can be counted on for going into the 2025 season. Even if one of those three jumps out from the pack this season to assert himself as a no-doubt-about-it 2025 mainstay, it looks like a group that will need to be bolstered.
d. The secondary is incredibly loaded for 2025 and beyond on paper.
No. 4 - A look at 2025...
I know it's down the road and I shouldn't look too far ahead, but ...
An early projected 2025 starting line-up/two-deep:
(A few notes)
* I'm projecting Jaydon Blue, Isaiah Bond, Kelvin Banks, D.J. Campbell and Trey Moore as early entrees for the purpose of this exorcise.
QB: Arch Manning (So.)/Trey Owens (RS Fr.)
RB: Cedric Baxter (Jr.)/Tre Wisner (Jr.)
WR: Johntay Cook (Jr.)/Aaron Butler (RS Fr.)
WR: Ryan Wingo (So.)/Matthew Golden (Sr.)
WR: DeAndre Moore (Jr.)/Ryan Niblett (So.)
TE: Amari Niblack (Sr.)/Jordan Washington (So.)
LT: Trevor Goosby (So.)/Jaydon Chatman (So.)
LG: Neto Umeozulu (Jr.)/Nate Kibble (RS Fr.)
C: Connor Robertson (Jr.)/Daniel Cruz (RS Fr.)
RG: Cole Hutson (SR.)/Connor Stroh (So.)
RT: Cam Williams (Sr.)/Brandon Baker (RS Fr.)
DE: Ethan Burke (Sr.)/Colton Vasek (So.)
NT: Alex January (So.)/Sydir Mitchell (So.)
DT: Jaray Bledsoe (Jr.)/Aaron Bryant (Jr.)
Edge: Collin Simmons (So.)/Zina Uneozulu (So.)
WLB: Derion Gullette (So.)/TyAnthony Smith (RS Fr.)
MLB: Anthony Hill (Jr.)/Liona Lefau (Jr.)
CB: Malik Muhammad (Jr.)/Wardell Mack (So.)
CB: Kobe Black (So.)/Warren Roberson (So.)
Star: Jaylon Guilbeau (Sr.)/Jelani McDonald (Jr.)
S: Derek Williams (Jr.)/Xavier Filsaime (So.)
S: Jelani McDonald (Jr.)/Michael Taaffe (Sr.)
Early thoughts...
a. The offense looks pretty damn loaded. The wide receiver two-deep doesn't include any of what might be the nation's best wide receiver class. Once you imagine who might show up, that group looks pretty juiced. It makes you wonder if Sarkisian will bypass the transfer market next year because he's surely telling the guys in the 2025 class that he's not going to take anyone that will jump in front of them.
b. I'm really curious to see what happens with Brandon Baker at tackle. It's possible that the soon-to-be true freshman won't have a clear run to playing time until his junior season because of the presence of one older player (Cam Williams) and another younger player (Trevor Goosby) who are just better than him at this point. It'll become a moot point if Williams declares early for the draft.
c. The interior of the offense line is a decent-sized question mark, with or without Campbell's return. Could a guy like Andre Cojoe get moved inside? Might the Longhorns play four tackles? I think I'd like a starting line-up with Goosby, Williams, Baker and Cojoe at the guards and tackles more than the way I have it set up with the current projections.
d. I really like those four ends. Imagine if Moore also comes back ...
e. That secondary has a chance to be elite.
f. The question marks for me are in the interior of that defensive line and linebacker. Keep in mind that neither David Gbenda nor Mo Blackwell have COVID years to re-use after the 2024 season.
No. 5 – A look at the departures …
When the Portal door finally closed on April 30, 23 different Longhorns had entered over the course of the December/April windows.
It's the single highest number of departures/pieces of attrition that the Longhorns have ever experienced in a single off-season. Only one of the 23 would currently be on the two-deep coming out of this spring.
Take a look at the full list of Portal departures, which opened the door for the Longhorns to be sitting at 83 scholarships.
QB - Maalik Murphy (Duke)
QB - Charles Wright - (App State)
RB - Savion Red (Undecided)
RB - Ky Woods (Nevada)
WR - Casey Cain (UNLV)
WR - Isaiah Neyor (Nebraska)
OL - Peyton Kirkland (Colorado)
OL - Sawyer Gorum-Welch (Coastal Carolina)
DT - Trill Carter (Auburn)
DT - Zac Swanson (Arizona State)
DE - J'Mond Tapp (Arizona State)
DE - Billy Walton (SMU)
DE - Kris Ross (Undecided)
LB - S'Maje Burrell (Undecided)
LB - Kendrick Blackshire (Undecided)
DB - Terrance Brooks (Illinois)
DB - Jerrin Thompson (Auburn)
DB - Jalen Catalon (UNLV)
DB - BJ Allen (North Texas)
DB - Xavion Brice (North Texas)
DB - Austin Jordan (TCU)
DB - Larry Turner-Gooden (San Jose State)
DB - Kitan Crawford (UNLV)
No. 6 - There's scoreboard and then there's this ...
This is hard to wrap my head around.
FOURTEEN.
In their final season in the Big 12, the Longhorns flexed in a way that they have never flexed before. Well done.
No. 7 – Texas Softball Sent a Major Warning ...
On the surface, the Longhorns didn't lose much in dropping its first game in more than a month in Saturday's Big 12 Tournament championship game against the Sooners.
Win or lose, the Longhorns weren't going to be defined by being on the side of a 5-1 loss to the Sooners.
Yet, there's no way to get around the fact that if the No. 1-ranked Longhorns are going to achieve national glory, they’re going to need to likely go through Oklahoma in Oklahoma City to pull it off. Hell, they might have to go through both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in Oklahoma City to win the national title.
It's the last step towards glory, but it's going to take the best softball the Longhorns are capable of if it's going to happen.
No. 8 – BUY or SELL …
(Buy) Yes, I think we'll get both of those things.
(Sell) I very much still try to make it pretty even between both mom and wife.
(Sell) I'm not sure about Bond at this point.
(Sell) Sarkisian has had one truly stellar season as a head coach. I can't predict him to win multiple national titles. Not yet.
(Buy) I love Nashville, although Ann Arbor in September should be outstanding.
(Sell) I'm still holding my Hudson Card stock.
(Buy) He's the most under-appreciated former Texas player. He's Tom Freaking Landry and you'd barely know he's a former Longhorn. I bang this drum every year.
(Sell) Not yet. Perhaps it gets there before the end of 2024.
(Sell) Multiple two loss teams will make it.
(Buy) Adding Charles to the 2008 team is a massive upgrade. He might have been the best player on the team that year if he sticks around.
(Sell) Texas wasn't going to beat Michigan, with or without Bijan.
(Sell) Ewers outperforms Beck that day and the Longhorns win the game.
(Sell/Sell/Buy/Sell/Sell/Buy)
I'll take hot ass summers over the coldest of windy, wet winters. Give me 65 and sunny with a slight wind as the perfect day. I could see Texas baseball really struggling in the SEC. Put some respect on Mitchell's name. The man scored in five straight playoff games. Thomas is the best Texas DB I've ever seen. Huston is the goat.
(Buy) The path to playing time is much more open in 2025 for Gullette than the other two.
No. 9 – Scattershooting all over the place …
... I had the Mavs in six over OKC before the series started and I see no reason to change my mind at this stage of the series. The Mavs are just a little too battle-tested.
... The T-Wolves better win game four or you get the feeling that their you know whats might get tighter than a clinched fist.
... Can we please stop with the Anthony Edwards/Michael Jordan comparisons? And this comes from someone who is a fan of Edwards. Please. Stop that mess.
... ESPN's Jeff Passan called Pittsburgh Pirates phenom Paul Skenes the best pitching prospect in a generation. Really? That feels a bit much, but he struck out seven in his MLB debut on Saturday and touched 100MPH on 17 different pitches. That kid has my attention.
... The Hawks have the No. 1 overall draft pick in the NBA Draft lottery in a year when there's not a consensus No. 1 overall pick. It feels a little like using all of your luck in a decade at the wrong time.
... I watched a couple of minutes of Stanley Cup playoff action this weekend. Go Stars.
... Bayer Leverkusen just won't lose. After a historic season, it'll be interesting to see how Xabi Alonso and Co. handle a season with Champions League to deal with.
... The Premier League title will come down to the final day ... again ... for the third time in six seasons. Will Man City blink against Tottenham in mid-week? That's Arsenal's chance.
... Derrick Lewis headlining a UFC Fight Night event after losing three of his previous four fights? That sounds about right ...
... Saw The Fall Guy this weekend. Thought it was ok. I had a good time and enjoyed the mindlessness of it all, but probably give it a C+ or B-. That being said, I need to make a confession ... I have a crush on Emily Blunt. I find her to be absolutely lovely.
No. 10 - Top 10: Toni Price ...
Back in the late 90s, I dated a girl from Lawrence, Kansas and part of dating her meant introducing her to the music scene from Austin.
Nearly three decades later, my former girlfriend made the trip back to Austin (from Lawrence) this weekend and sent me a message from a Toni Price show.
For those unfamiliar with Price, she was the queen of the Austin blues scene for decades and it became a rite of passage in the 90s and 2000s to see her at The Continental Club.
It's been a while since I featured my favorite all-time Austin music voice, so this weekend seems like a good time to re-set the record. Time for a list!
Last five songs out: Boozy Blues, Like Cats and Dogs, Remember Me, Something in the
Water and A West Texas Lullaby
10. Tumbleweed (Youtube)
Price pretty much took over the Austin scene when she released Hey back in 1993 and this was the song that won Record of the Year honors from the Austin Music Awards. More than anything else, this song seems incredibly personal to her and when she would perform with Champ Hood on this number at Tuesday Night Hippy Hour, it was pure magic. RIP Champ.
9. Hey (Spotify)
I'm pretty sure that listening to this song on KGSR during in my senior year in high school was my introduction to Price. The perfect windows-down, music-up summer song. It's the kind of number that can pull you out of a bad mood.
8. Misty Moonlight (Spotify)
This one is a personal favorite and the first song from Price that really grabbed ahold of my heart.
7. Just to Hear Your Voice (Youtube)
One of the best songs from her debut album Swim Away, this one focuses on someone that loves a person so much that she calls his phone at the same time every day just to hear the voice on the answering machine.
6. Daylight (Spotify)
It's hard to catch Toni in a particular vibe because she's like a butterfly popping in and out of sound, but when she wants to channel her inner-Stevie, she can get down and dirty with the blues.
5. Something (Spotify)
I had to keep myself from listing the entire Hey album on the list, but there's no question that this song was not only going to be on the list, but inside the top five. It's just an incredibly lovely, simple song.
4. One of These Lonely Days (Spotify)
The best song off of her Born to be Blue album from 2003, the beauty and softness of the despair she delivers in this song is just remarkable.
3. Bluebird (Youtube)
One of her absolute signature songs. Some will be mad that it's not ranked even higher.
2. Freeway (Spotify)
I love this song so much that I had it in the No. 1 slot for 47 of the 48 hours I worked on the project, but in the end, it's one of two songs that just explode from Toni's soul and I decided to rank it as 1b on the list.
1. Richest One (Youtube)
There's a place that Toni goes to in this song that's just different than the rest of her songs, which is saying something. The final 2 ½ minutes of the song is pure greatness. This is one of the songs that separates her from the mortals.
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