JD PicKell: Quinn Ewers had command in first start

It was by no means a flawless debut performance to his Texas career, but quarterback Quinn Ewers was in control during the win. On3’s JD PicKell was impressed with how Ewers ran the Texas offense in his first year there after transferring in from Ohio State.

Ewers was a heralded quarterback prospect coming out of high school for his arm talent and ability to create out of the structure of the offense and make off-platform throws in chaos. While that ability is still there, PicKell was more impressed with how decisive and confident the second-year quarterback looked.

“Well, it was his first start, against Louisiana-Monroe — how much you want to draw from that, I think, is up to you,” PicKell said on “The Hard Count”. “I’m just saying, OK, he looked like he was in command. And that was a thing that I was probably most impressed by. There was no half-stepping with him. There was no, ‘I don’t know if I should take the football here.’ Whenever he decided to release the football, whenever he decided to make a throw or whenever he decided on where he was going with that football, it was made full speed. Even if it wasn’t the right place to go, he was delivering it 100 miles-per-hour. And most of the time it was the right place to go, for the record. Really definitive decisions that were made. So the confidence and the command was encouraging to me and that’s going to develop over the season.”

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The talent that Ewers possesses was evident, too. Ewers finished 16-for-24 for 225 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. PicKell raved about Ewers and his talents, noting that it was good Texas doesn’t need Ewers to be a world beater on every play.

“You can see the playmaking ability from this guy,” PicKell said. “His first touchdown pass, obviously sort of evaded and got the ball out to [JaTavion] Sanders and had a nice touchdown pass there. You also saw there was another play where he stepped up into the pocket — as the game sort of developed he got more comfortable — he stepped up into the pocket, avoided the rush, made a lot of really great throws that are off platform. And that’s the thing you heard a lot about him coming out of high school is he’s really great when he doesn’t have a perfect setting to throw the football from, meaning his feet aren’t set, he’s on the run, maybe he’s running away from somebody else. Maybe he has to throw the ball on the move. He has so much arm talent and that’s why he draws that Pat Mahomes comparison from other people. He has so much arm talent, he can just sort of flick the wrist and swing it in there.

“And I saw that a couple times from him in this game, to where — do we want to see that every single snap? Do we want to see that every single time the play breaks down? Well, not if you don’t have to. But when you do have to, it’s a really great luxury to have as a quarterback. And as an offense. And I think that’s why we saw Steve Sarkisian ultimately go with him. That high ceiling. That arm talent. The playmaking ability. The talent. All of that was on display in flashes in Austin in this first start.”

PicKell was, again, most impressed by Ewers own ability to keep himself in check. He had an interception early on when he threw a pass that probably shouldn’t have left his hand. From then on, he settled in and looked a lot more comfortable as he pressed less.

Finding the balance between maximizing what his talents can do on the field and mitigating risk will be put to the test this Saturday when Texas hosts Alabama.

“To be able to check it down and to play within the system, I think, is really, really encouraging for Longhorn fans. Because that’s the one thing you worry about with a young quarterback who has the makeup of a Quinn Ewers — like we’ve talked about, with so much talents, is OK, is he going to still think this is the high school ranks where ‘OK, at the end of the day, I’m just better than everybody on the field. At the end of the day, I got an S on my chest underneath this Longhorns jersey and folks, when the lights come on, I’m him. And that’s that.’ Because that’s how it works at the high school level. So a lot of maturity and honestly high football IQ from Quinn Ewers to know that he has to just take what the defense gives him. Now, does that continue throughout the season? Going to be crucial. Because that first drive, I thought he did kind of press, but as the game wore on, I liked how he improved in his decision making,” PicKell said.