Here's the thing about Quinn Ewers that Texas fans don't get told enough ... he loves his university.
He absolutely bleeds orange.
In this brave new world of college football when so many of you cringe over the idea of too many kids coming to the University of Texas for NIL dollars instead of good ol' fashioned romanticism, Ewers loves being a Longhorn as much as any player in the program.
It kind of reminds me of those bumper stickers that claim a person wasn't born in Texas, but moved here as soon as they could. Ewers didn't start his college career at Texas, but he transferred there almost as soon as he could. Steve Sarkisian gave him a reason to right a wrong (choosing Ohio State over Texas in the first place) and he leaped on it.
Maybe one of the reasons why I like the kid so much is that he seems to be a bit of a fellow hopeless romantic. He doesn't talk about it all the time, but he's a guy that loves the idea of being the Texas boy who leads the University of Texas back to football greatness. Winning the Heisman along the way would be pretty cool as well, right? It's the stuff of childhood dreams.
It's what made what happened on Saturday night so disappointing on a human level.
You could see all over Ewers' face how much coming out of the game was killing a piece of his soul. The fairytale final season isn't supposed to include stomach strains that take away the ability to finish one of the final six home games of his college career. Or potentially play in one of the final five home games of his college career. Or maybe play in one of the final four home games ...
You could practically see him coming to grips with the implications of what going into the tent for evaluation actually meant in real-time.
Right about the time the realization that he doesn't know when he'll be able to play again was rolling around in his head, he likely heard the noise.
The Arch Effect.
That's what a friend of mine who was on the sideline last night called it. "It's a different kind of sound," my friend texted me on Sunday morning. "It's like the fans don't even know how much louder they can be until he does something. Roars turn into ROARS. DKR becomes bloodthirsty when he plays."
Can we take a moment to address one of the elephants in the room about last night? We're in a safe place, right?
Ewers will want Arch Manning to do well. The two are very good friends. Of course, he's supportive. Yet, it will have sucked to have been in the tent getting checked out by team doctors, knowing that you're likely going to miss some future game time and to have heard the roars ... errr ... I mean ROARS of the crowd ... when your back-up enters the game and makes a play. We can all acknowledge that any time Manning does anything, that shot of dopamine hits different.
You know Ewers felt it. You know there had to be a part of Ewers that was thinking, "You have to be freaking kidding me?" He's just a boy, standing in front of an entire stadium full of 100,000+ people, asking them to love him as much as they love his back-up.
We don't need to make a big deal out of it. No one needs to apologize. Fans are going to love who they love and it's the kind of organic creation that can't be faked. It kind of is what it is.
Still, less than 24 hours before the program he has helped carry back to the No. 1 spot in the rankings for the first time in 18 years, Ewers was wrestling with the complicated feelings of carrying a frustrating injury, possibly losing his grasp on the Heisman and listening to the mind-melt that it must be to feel less passionately loved by those you crave to be passionately loved by.
This isn't quite the dream coming true.
Yet, it's not quite the dream coming to an end, either. Not even the Heisman. There's nothing that missing games against two slugs on the schedule can hurt that beating Oklahoma and Georgia in consecutive weeks can't help solve.
Was last night a massive disappointment? Yes. Was it surreal beyond belief? Absolutely. Will it be anything other than a footnote on this season when the dust clears? No.
Pages are left to be written and Ewers will almost certainly carry the pen in his hand. All the dreams are still alive, including the one that has the fans at DKR cheering him as lustily as they do his backup.
No. 2 - Let's talk Arch for a sec ...
Arch Manning was spectacular on Saturday night and I'm not going to sit here on the morning after and try to throw water on the performance.
Just because it happened against an uninspiring team doesn't mean it didn't happen.
The truth about Manning is that he should look like the best player on the field in his second season as a college player. He's the former No. 1 overall prospect in the country. It's expected that he'll eventually be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2027 NFL Draft pick.
We don't need to go overboard about his performance from Saturday night, but also make sure that we don't pretend that it was nothing. What we started to see on Saturday is what it will all look like when it all comes together. Of course, there will be some bumps along the way... of course ... but this is what it looks like when a No. 1 overall prospect starts to go boom.
It was a sneak peak into the future. Feel free to enjoy the hell out of it.
No. 3 - Scattershooting the day after 31-12 ...
... I meant what I said from Saturday night about Colin Simmons ... he might be the best player on the defense. That dude is a difference maker and when he's on the field, the defense feels his presence at all times.
... Simmons currently leads the Longhorns in TFL (3), sacks (2) and quarterback hits (3).
... The Longhorns are No. 1 in the AP Poll. It happened. It actually happened. It's been a long damn time coming.
... Ewers currently has a season efficiency rating of 175.3, which would rank as the best in school history in a single season if he can keep the pace. Arch's efficiency rating is currently 317.8.
... As long as Manning is on the field, it feels like Johntay Cook's stock probably goes up and Matthew Golden's might go down a little. Just like Ewers seems to have very good chemistry with Golden, Manning seems to have it with Cook.
... Freshman punter Michael Kern quietly had a very good night on Saturday, finishing the night with 2 50+ yard punts and a 45.8 average.
... The same size is still very small, but here are the current yards per carry leaders among the top backs on the depth chart: Jerrick Gibson (5.2), Jaydon Blue (4.0) and Tre Wisner (3.8)
No. 4 - If I had a vote that mattered ...
1. Texas
2. Georgia
3. Alabama
4. Ohio State
5. Tennessee
6. Miami
7. Ole Miss
8. Missouri
9. Oregon
10. USC
Heisman Trophy
1. Cam Ward (Miami)
2. Quinn Ewers (Texas)
3. Jalen Milroe (Alabama)
4. Travis Hunter (Colorado)
5. Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss)
No. 5 – Updated Texas Scholarship Board ...
No. 6 - Transfer Watch ...
Here are notable stat lines from former Longhorns across college football this weekend ...
QB - Hudson Card (Purdue): 11 of 24 for 124 yards, 1 TD and 2 INT (86.3 rating) in a 66-7 loss to Notre Dame.
QB - Maalik Murphy (Duke): 28 of 43 for 267 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT (135.6 rating) in a 26-21 win over UConn.
RB - Ja'Quinden Jackson (Arkansas): 15 carries for 147 yards and a TD in a 37-27 win over UAB.
RB - Savion Red (Nevada): 10 carries for 23 yards, 3 receptions for 11 yards in a 27-0 loss to Minnesota.
WR - Isaiah Neyor (Nebraska): 2 receptions for 35 yards and a touchdown in a 34-3 win over Northern Iowa.
DB - Jalen Catalon (UNLV): Had 4 tackles and an interception in a 23-20 win over Kansas.
DB - Jerrin Thompson (Auburn): Recorded a team-best 6 tackles and an interception in a 45-19 win over New Mexico.
No. 7 - The champs are still the champs, but ...
The champs got it put on them on Sunday, as a struggling Texas volleyball team got swept at Stanford.
It's still too early to panic, but the Longhorns are 3-3 and will begin conference play in just over a week.
The first conference game in the SEC? It's in College Station on September 27.
Now would be a good time to start putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.
No. 8 – BUY or SELL …
(Sell) I don't think we're going to see it in the next five years, but it wouldn't completely surprise me if we see it in the next 10-20 years. It would have a chance to be a nice little revenue generator. I think you'd probably see a lot of schools use it as a chance to give their starters work and not just play the back-ups.
(Sell) Nah, they were just being fans.
(Sell) Sarkisian will want Ewers back by the time the OU game rolls around.
(Sell) That thought never crossed my mind.
(Buy) If Ewers was struggling badly, anything would be on the table in such a setting, as it was with Alabama. That feels unfair to speculate about because Ewers has typically been very good in big games, but I don't think it's an impossibility.
(Sell) I don't have a ton of reservations about Arch, especially against teams that have struggled against lesser teams and quarterbacks.
(Buy) He's still the front-runner.
(Sell) I'll believe it when I see it. It hasn't been Kyle Flood's style.
(Buy) I think he's better than Matthew Golden.
(Sell) When healthy, Jaydon Blue is the starter and best back on the team.
(Buy) That's fair.
(Sell) I think he brings more to the table than that, but you might not be far from the truth. He's not going to be a double-digit-sack guy and he might not be better than Colin Simmons.
(Sell) It could have been, but I went against it.
(Sell) It should help with offensive Portal targets.
(Sell) Blue will lead the team in rushing.
No. 9 – Scattershooting all over the place …
... No one will want to hear/read this, but I thought the Aggies looked pretty good in smashing a pretty horrible Florida squad. Did Weigman just lose his job?
... If Arch Manning was the starting quarterback for Tulane, the Sooners would have lost at home on Saturday.
... South Carolina got the Montreal screw job from SEC officials on Saturday.
... Of course, the Cowboys got mollywhopped by the Saints. You could feel that coming from a mile away.
... Trevor Lawrence is in his fourth season in the NFL and it feels like he is just a guy.
... Premier League Thoughts From The Weekend: It never happened. I've blacked it out. Don't bother trying to wake me.
... It doesn't sound like I missed anything in not buying UFC 306.
No. 10 – The List: James Earl Jones
10. The Great White Hope
Inspired by the life and times of former heavyweight champ Jack Johnson, Jones gives a powerfully physical performance that won him his first Golden Globe Award.
9. Claudine
A rom-com with Jones and Diahann Carroll? Yes, please.
8. Clear and Present Danger
You could pick any of three different Jack Ryan movies, but this is the one I always remember.
7. Dr. Strangelove
I'll admit that this isn't a movie I personally love, but I can't ignore its place in movie history.
6. The Sandlot
He's such a scene-stealer in this movie that it makes you wish he'd been in a few more scenes.
5. Conan The Barbarian
As a child of the 80s, I often think about him in this role more than any other. This is the role that introduced him to me.
4. Field of Dreams
Am I underrating it at No. 4?
3. Coming to America
One of the best comedies ever made.
2. The Lion King
He's freaking Mufasa, King of the Pride Lands.
1. The Empire Strikes Back
This scene blew me away when I was 5 years old.
