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In Texas' second straight College Football Playoff appearance, third-year quarterback Quinn Ewers showed all the highs, and lows, that his time at Texas comprises of. Last week, Ewers declared for the NFL Draft, calling it a career as a Longhorn. He leaves behind a brilliant, yet complicated legacy.
By Spencer Galloway | January 22nd, 2025
Photo via ESPN
Earlier this week, Quinn Ewers announced that he is declaring for the NFL Draft. Ewers has put together quite the season for the Horns, passing for 3400+ yards as well as 31 TDs across a 13-win season. The announcement comes after a disappointing loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the CFP semifinal, one in which saw Texas within a yard of tying the game but ultimately lost on a costly fumble that was recovered for a TD on that very same series.
With Ewers' announcement to forgo his final year of eligibility, he yields the reigns of the Texas offense to the most popular college backup quarterback maybe ever, Arch Manning. While excitement surrounding the five-star Manning is and has been well-warranted, some Texas fans may look back on the Ewers' era with an ounce of regret as many sped past what has been an incredible final season played out in Burnt Orange.
Manning, whose namesake alone is enough to spawn discussions as to whether he should have been playing over Ewers this whole time, is likely going to shine in his time as the starter at Texas this fall. However, to be remembered as one of the best Longhorn quarterbacks in the history of the program, he will need to leapfrog his immediate predecessor.
Ewers ranks no lower than the third-best quarterback in program history, falling behind only Vince Young and Colt McCoy. He finishes his illustrious Texas career fourth in total wins (27), and is third in total completions, yards, and touchdowns. Ewers of course led Texas to their only two College Football Playoff appearances, reaching the semifinal in each of the last two seasons. Most importantly though, he made Texas, Texas again.
Ewers leaves Texas Football in a much, much better place than he found it. The Horns spent much of this past season ranked as the (#1) team in the nation and never ranked lower than (#4). Prior to Ewers' arrival, Texas struggled to win over truly elite recruits and often lost out on top talent in their own backyard to out of state schools, at times to conference rivals. They never sniffed the inside of a top ten ranking, let alone consideration for the CFP. They struggled to send talent to the NFL. Above all, Texas had become a laughingstock.
For as talented as Sam Ehlinger is and what he means to this program, and while some of those late 2010's teams are memorable and a reliable source of nostalgia for fans such as myself, Texas had a noticeably clear ceiling. Well, maybe clear to anyone not on the team. Following the departure of Ehlinger, five-star recruit Casey Thompson took over at quarterback and Texas went 5-7. The very next season, Ewers came in and supercharged this team, and it was beyond evident Texas had upgraded at the quarterback position.
Photo by Stephen Spillman/AP
Not to be forgotten in the development of both Ewers and the Longhorns is head coach Steve Sarkisian, who saved Ewers from the bowels of the Ohio State depth chart, where he was dwelling below C.J. Stroud, Jack Miller, and Kyle McCord.
Quinn Ewers and Steve Sarkisian have grown close during their time together at Texas, and immediately following their loss to Ohio State, Sarkisian had this to say about Quinn Ewers:
"He’s taught me a lot, probably unknowingly to him, because what he went through every year, dealing with injuries, 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, and that that’s a real credit to him, because human nature in this day and age is to look at Twitter, to look at Instagram, to look at social media and articles written in fan boards and whatever else, and you can ride that emotional roller coaster of whatever you think public opinion could be, and that could be the opinion of one or 100 or whatever.”
Sarkisian nailed an especially important detail when it comes to the story of Quinn Ewers' time at Texas. Expectations. Some of which were unfairly set for the young quarterback. If you had told every Texas fan at the time that the 18 year old, scraggly looking, Buckeye transfer would come in and break records, take Texas to the CFP multiple times, and be a class act on and off the field for three whole seasons, there would have been a unanimous stamp of approval for the incoming Ewers. Almost none of them would have found it even remotely possible to have a sizable portion of the fanbase calling for his benching in favor of an unproven redshirt freshman.
To whom much is given much is required, I suppose. Such is life as the quarterback for one of the most recognizable brands in not just college football, but in all of sports. Ewers, with the help of Sarkisian and the rest of this year's supporting cast, lost only two games in their pursuit of a conference championship, one that they just lost out on to their now-rival Georgia Bulldogs. That's not so bad for their first season in the SEC, and their first spent outside of the largely inferior Big 12.
Photo by Smiley N. Pool/Dallas Morning News
Over his long-spanning career, there are a number of games and moments that present themselves as standouts among the many that Ewers played in. From his first appearance in the Red River Rivalry, where he threw four touchdown passes in a 49-0 blowout of the Sooners, and donned the Golden Hat for the first time, all the way to the most recent Texas victory, where Ewers hit a walk off in the form of a 25-yard dot to tight-end Gunnar Helm in overtime to send the Big 12 Champs, Arizona State, packing and launch the Longhorns back into the CFP Semifinal.
My favorite memory of the Longhorn QB will always be Texas' 2023 affair with the Alabama Crimson Tide. After not being able to finish what he started in their matchup a year prior, having his day cut short to injury, Ewers headed into his second matchup against the Tide and was extraordinary. Texas came away victorious behind a 349-yard, three-touchdown game from Ewers, much to the surprise of fans, as well as Alabama head coach Nick Saban (who turned out to be coaching his final season at Alabama.) Playing out their final year in the Big 12, many doubted Texas' level of readiness to make the jump to the more prestigious, more competitive SEC. However, the narrative quickly changed following their road win against the darlings of their soon to-be new conference.
For long-time Texas fans, this was the moment things changed. We remember where we were and how this game made us feel. Even if some of us had belief entering the season, the rest of the nation was finally put on notice. It's unique that an out-of-conference, early season matchup could have been so meaningful, yet it was exactly the game Texas needed to play, and win, to show they were ready for all that was being talked up about them at the time.
Photo by Vasha Hunt/AP
Had Texas finally made it to the National Championship, it would have been exciting to see a big-game Ewers get the chance to go for Texas' first title in nearly 20 years. Unfortunately, Ewers and the Horns left a bad taste in fan's mouths with an 83-yard fumble recovery touchdown on a series that saw Texas squander an opportunity on the 1-yard line. The play made by none other than Ohio State defensive end Jack Sawyer, the former roommate of Ewers during his short stint at Ohio State.
The two, still close friends to this day, shared an earnest moment after the play occurred, one in which Ewers told his former roommate "Screw you", delivered with a soft smile. Even in one of the darker football moments experienced by the Texas quarterback, he remained even keeled. A sign of Ewers' signature demeanor, as he has never been one to make a show of his emotion, to his credit and perhaps also to his own detriment.
While this is the end of the line for Quinn Ewers' time at Texas, he has much to be hopeful for in the near future. It is reported that Ewers turned down an $8M+ NIL deal to play out his final year of eligibility at another school. While Ewers has a positive outlook as an NFL prospect, he is not likely to be one of the first few quarterbacks taken in the upcoming draft, meaning he almost certainly will not make that kind of money in his first season as a pro. Ewers is making a big bet on himself, while also choosing to not restart somewhere else and potentially hurt the legacy he's built up to this point.
There's something to be said for him choosing to end his college career here and now, as a Longhorn. It isn't commonplace in this day and age of transfer portals and NIL deals that players think about, let alone prioritize legacy. Maybe that isn't the ultimate driving factor for his decision to go pro, but a decade from now when you google his name, Ewers' name will appear mostly on the backs of burnt orange jerseys. That matters.
Quinn Ewers was not a perfect player, he was not without his share of mistakes, and he never was able to hoist a national championship trophy wearing the orange and white. He was, however, the perfect player to bring Texas out of darkness and into a new era. Texas is unquestionably in a better spot than they were three years ago and are set up to compete for national championships in the years to come. For his efforts, his name forever will echo throughout the Forty Acres, where he will forever be remembered as a Longhorn.
It feels good to be back! This one was fun. First stab at a long-form college football piece, and it at least feels like it's good. So surely I will read it a dozen more times and find at least one hundred things I hate about it. If you've read anything I've written before, then seeing a memoir of a Texas quarterback's college-career was probably not on your bingo card. "What's the Celtics superfan doing stealing shine from the Austin-American Statesman?" The story of my fanhoods is not long, but its longer than I have given myself for this excerpt.
Life has been busy with family and travel as of late, but the holiday decor is stowed away and resolutions have been made, so now is as good a time as ever to pick up the pen and write more. Especially given where we are at this point in the NBA season, with my sorry, shell of themselves Celtics, giving me plenty to speak on. Expect more NBA content on the site and in your inbox soon (if you're subbed to the newsletter!) If you've had to turn to Kendrick Perkins for hoops content at any point in my absence, I do apologize.
Thanks for reading!