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This is the last trip around the sun for Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
Texas will host Clemson on Saturday in a first-round playoff game. We will talk a lot about Ewers vs. Cade Klubnik, the quarterbacks who were compared against each other in high school. Many within this state will revisit the memorable 2020 high school state championship game that Westlake won, 52-34. According to UT, this is the first time these football teams have played each other. There will be Steve Sarkisian vs. Dabo Swinney—the team that embraces the transfer portal versus a program that views it like a trap in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
More importantly, this will be the last time Ewers steps into DKR as a Longhorn football player. If Texas defeats Clemson, the Longhorns will play against Arizona State in the Peach Bowl. The semifinals and finals will be away from Austin as well. Saturday will mark the end of a successful three-year stretch of football for a quarterback who wanted to wear burnt orange from the time he was a child.
Ewers deserves nothing but love for his accomplishments at Texas.
Multiple people—fans and media members—have fallen into the trap of constantly telling us who Ewers is not.
Let us talk about who Ewers is.
Ewers loves the Longhorns just as much as you. Lifelong Longhorn fan. He literally has a Longhorn tattoo on his leg.
Ewers is family.
This is a young man who verbally committed to former Texas football coach Tom Herman. It was a dream come true for Ewers and his family. Texas was about to land a quarterback who would be a program-changer. Unfortunately, the program Ewers loved was engulfed in a toxic controversy over The Eyes of Texas, which caused the quarterback to walk away from the program he loved and attend Ohio State.
The Ohio State experiment was like mixing bleach and ammonia. The Buckeyes never embraced Ewers in a way that made him feel at home. The coaching staff buried him on the depth chart. It appeared Ewers was destined to fail as a college quarterback from the outside perspective.
When Ewers entered the transfer portal, Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian gave the quarterback a chance to come home. Sarkisian desperately needed a quarterback. Ewers needed a fresh start. It was a win for everyone involved.
Ewers saved Texas from the quarterback purgatory it endured since Colt McCoy.
Let us revisit that list to get a great appreciation of how important Ewers has been to this program.
Texas
2010 – A year after Colt McCoy graduated, Garrett Gilbert started as a sophomore, and Texas finished 5-7 that season.
2011 – David Ash appeared in 13 games with six starts as a true freshman. Case McCoy appeared in 11 games with five starts. Texas finished 8-5.
2012 – Ash started in 12 of 13 (missed Kansas State due to an injury).
2013 – Ash missed 10 games that season, and Case McCoy started in his absence. This was also the year Tyrone Swoopes’ redshirt season was burned.
2014 – Swoopes earned the job as a sophomore. Texas finished 6-7.
2015 – Swoopes was eventually replaced by redshirt freshman quarterback Jerrod Heard. Texas finished 5-7.
2016 – Texas started true freshman Shane Buechele. The Longhorns finished 5-7.
2017 – True freshman Sam Ehlinger and Buechele (sophomore) shared the job for most of that season. Texas finished 7-6.
2018-2020 – Ehlinger led Texas to a Sugar Bowl victory in 2018, followed by an 8-5 season and 7-3 in 2020.
2021 – Sarkisian starts third-year quarterback Hudson Card and pulls him after two games. Card is replaced by Casey Thompson, who started strong but struggled after a severe thumb injury. Texas finished 5-7.
Outside of Ehlinger, the quarterback room at Texas was below average for numerous years.
Take a look at the quarterbacks who previously committed to Texas:
2009 – Garrett Gilbert
2010 – Case McCoy, Connor Wood
2011 – David Ash
2012 – Connor Brewer
2013 – Tyrone Swoopes
2014 – Jerrod Heard
2015 – Matthew Merrick, Kai Locksley
2016 – Shane Buechele
2017 – Sam Ehlinger
2018 – Casey Thompson, Cameron Rising
2019 – Roschon Johnson
2020 – Hudson Card, Ja’Quinden Jackson
2021 – Charles Wright
2022 – Maalik Murphy
Thankfully, Ewers arrived and began the turnaround that Texas needed.
One of the reasons Arch Manning committed to Texas is because the family wanted to play for a coach who develops 5-star quarterbacks into NFL players. Ewers’ arrival at Texas was part of the reason why they committed to the Longhorns.
Ewers guided Texas to an 8-5 record as a starter in 2022 (did not play in three games).
He completed 9-of-12 passes for 134 yards in the first quarter against Alabama before leaving due to injury. I still believe if Ewers does not sustain an injury in that game, Texas defeats Alabama. He connected on 21-of-31 passes (67.7%) for 289 yards and a career-high four touchdowns in a victory over Oklahoma in the Red River Showdown. He was not perfect but better than the quarterbacks who preceded him.
Ewers gave the program hope.
He had a breakout game against Alabama in Tuscaloosa last season. Ewers completed 24-of-38 passes for 349 yards and three touchdowns to guide the 11th-ranked Longhorns to a 34-24 victory over then-No. 3 Alabama. In the fourth quarter, Ewers connected on 6-of-7 passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns to give Texas one of its biggest regular-season victories in school history.
Ewers topped that performance in the Big 12 Championship Game. He completed 35-of-46 passes (76.1%) for 452 yards and four touchdowns during the victory against Oklahoma State. Ewers established a Big 12 title game record for passing yards and tied the record for passing TDs (all four thrown in the first half). The 452 passing yards and 35 completions were the third-most in a game in program history.
More importantly, Ewers made Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark look silly on the podium as he begrudgingly gave the Longhorns a conference championship trophy on their way out the door.
In addition, Ewers led Texas to a playoff appearance last season as one of the top four teams in the country.
Ewers led Texas to a road win against Michigan earlier this season. It was a huge win against the defending national champions.
For those who think the Michigan win is nothing to celebrate because the team finished 7-5 this season, just ask Ohio State coach Ryan Day about the Wolverines.
Texas is currently 11-2 and in the playoffs under the leadership of Ewers. Sure, the defense deserves a lot of credit for this team’s success in 2024.
Yet, for all of the criticism that follows Ewers, the SEC coaches voted and Ewers was a second-team all-conference player. Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart was a first-teamer, while South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers was on the third team.
Here is a portion of UT’s press release after Ewers received the award:
“Ewers spearheads a UT offense that ranks No. 13 in the FBS in passing offense (281 ypg), 15th in team passing efficiency (154.92), 16th in completion percentage (66.3%), 18th in total offense (445.4 ypg), and 25th in scoring offense (33.6 ppg). Individually, Ewers stands 17th in the FBS in passing touchdowns (17), 23rd in completion percentage (66.2%), completions per game (21.18), and points responsible for per game (14.4). Ewers boasts a 24-game passing touchdown streak—the longest active streak by an FBS quarterback and the second-longest streak in program history behind Colt McCoy’s program-record 29 games. The Southlake, Texas, product ranks third and fourth in the program’s record book in passing touchdowns (61) and passing yards (8,321).”
Overall, Ewers is 25-7 as a starter at Texas.
Hopefully, for Longhorn fans, that record improves to 29-7.
Ewers does not need to play another year of college football. I was told the majority of NFL teams rank him as the third-best quarterback in this draft. Those opinions could change if Ewers gets on a hot streak and leads Texas to a national championship.
This is the last trip around the sun for Texas quarterback Ewers at DKR.
Ewers deserves nothing but love for his accomplishments at Texas.
Photo via AP
Funniest Things You Will See This Week
Tennessee Whiskey speaks to everybody’s soul
Charles Barkley has the best one-liners
Where are his teammates?
Poor guy will never let his wife shop for him again (bad language alert)
Sports On A Dime
1. Props to a living Longhorn Legend
2. The 2024 All-SEC Coaches’ Football Team was announced this past week and I thought it would be fun to see their Rivals rankings.
First Team All-SEC
Offense
QB
Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss
4-star (5.9 rating)
RB
Dylan Sampson, Tennessee
3-star (5.7 rating)
Jarquez Hunter, Auburn
3-star (5.6 rating)
WR
Ryan Williams, Alabama
5-star (6.1 rating)
Luther Burden III, Missouri
5-star (6.1 rating)
TE
Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt
4-star (5.8 rating)
OL
Kelvin Banks Jr., Texas
4-star (6.0 rating)
Will Campbell, LSU
4-star (6.0 rating)
Tyler Booker, Alabama
4-star (5.9 rating)
Tate Ratledge, Georgia
5-star (6.1 rating)
C
Cooper Mays, Tennessee
4-star (5.8 rating)
AP
Dylan Sampson, Tennessee
3-star (5.7 rating)
Defense
DL
Kyle Kennard, South Carolina
3-star (5.6 rating)
Walter Nolen, Ole Miss
5-star (6.1 rating)
Nic Scourton, Texas A&M
4-star (5.9 rating)
James Pearce Jr., Tennessee*
4-star (5.9 rating)
Princely Umanmielen, Ole Miss
4-star (5.8 ranking)
LB
Danny Stutsman, Oklahoma
3-star (5.6 rating)
Jihaad Campbell, Alabama
5-star (6.1 rating)
Whit Weeks, LSU
4-star (5.8 rating)
DB
Trey Amos, Ole Miss
2-star (5.4 rating)
Nick Emmanwori, South Carolina
4-star (5.8 rating)
Malachi Moore, Alabama
4-star (5.8 rating)
Jahdae Barron, Texas
3-star (5.6 rating)
Special Teams
PK
Alex Raynor, Kentucky
Not rated
P
Kai Kroeger, South Carolina
2-star (5.4 rating)
RS
Barion Brown, Kentucky
4-star (5.9 rating)
KOS
Peyton Woodring, Georgia
3-star (5.5 rating)
LS
Beau Gardner, Georgia
2-star (5.4 rating)
3. The transfer portal window opened on Monday and will close on December 28. That is the deadline for players to enter the portal. They can sign with a team after December 28. The spring portal window runs from April 16-25.
However, it is important to note that any player participating in a bowl game after December 28 has a five-day window after their season concludes to enter the portal. That means Texas will be looking to upgrade its roster through the portal until after the national championship game on January 20.
4. Texas should grab punters and kickers out of the transfer portal going forward instead of signing those players out of high school. Lesson learned.
5. Oklahoma forced Dillon Gabriel out of Norman to pave the way for Jackson Arnold after last season. After mishandling Gabriel’s development, the former 5-Star quarterback entered the transfer portal and will attend Auburn. That should be a fireable offense. However, the Oklahoma athletic department is content with Brent Venables’ 22-16 record, including two six-win seasons (2022 and 2024). Oklahoma finished with the 17th-ranked 2025 recruiting class (10th in the SEC). Hey, if Oklahoma is satisfied with being average, Texas fans should not complain. Enjoy the Venables era for as long as it lasts.
6. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey does not need to overthink it. His conference does not need to schedule tough nonconference games in the future because the selection committee only cares about wins, not the strength of schedule. Schedule easy nonconference games and only schedule eight conference games. Give the committee as many 10-win teams as possible.
Here is a portion of Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger’s report:
“However, Sankey confirmed that changes to the CFP can be made as soon as next year’s playoff. But most or all of those changes are expected to require unanimity among the 10 FBS conferences, as the leagues remain bound to a previous agreement that expires after the 2025 postseason. The leagues agreed in the spring on a six-year extension through 2031 that does not require unanimity but does include agreed-upon guarantees for any future format: (1) the automatic inclusion of the five highest-ranked conference champions; (2) a protection for independent Notre Dame if the school finishes high enough in the committee’s rankings; (3) a field of 12 or 14 teams.
“However, everything else can be changed, most notably the future of the automatic first-round byes designated for conference champions; the number of automatic qualifiers designated per conference; and the selection and seeding process of the 13-member committee.
“This year’s bracket does not align with the committee’s rankings because of the rule granting only conference champions a first-round bye and the top four seeds in the field. For example, Boise State, No. 9 in the committee’s rankings, is seeded No. 3 as the third-highest ranked champion, and Arizona State, No. 12, is seeded No. 4 — each with first-round byes over higher-ranked teams, such as No. 5 Texas and No. 6 Penn State.
“It sets up one of the more difficult paths for No. 1 seed Oregon, which meets the winner of the Nos. 8-9 seed game between Ohio State and Tennessee, two teams ranked No. 6-7, but seeded lower because of the first-round bye rule.
“Asked about that rule, Sankey said he will “wait to answer that” until a later date.”
7. ICYMI
8. Here is a blast from the past talking about the present.
9. As a guy who was never sold on Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, here is what I wrote on October 20: “It is hard to find a quarterback worthy of the Heisman Trophy award this season. It is either Colorado's Travis Hunter or Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty for me.”
Well, Hunter claimed the 2024 Heisman Trophy, edging Jeanty in a close finish. Hunter secured the award with 2,231 points to Jeanty’s 2,017, the narrowest margin of victory since 2009.
Yes, I want a cookie.
10. Cam Rising has taken advantage of more loopholes than your CPA
