Quinn Ewers reveals his initial reaction to learning he was starting, emotions of Red River Showdown

Texas freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers only played in about four quarters of football before suffering a shoulder injury in week 2 that would sideline him for a few weeks. After missing three weeks of action, the former 5-star recruit was cleared to play and named the starter of arguably the Longhorns biggest game of the season, their Red River Showdown versus Oklahoma, one of college football’s most storied rivalry games.

“It’s hard to say what I thought, if I felt like I was gonna be rusty or not, but when coach told me what was going through my mind was really just it’s time to go and that’s pretty much it,” Ewers said.

Ewers looked far from rusty in his first game back from injury, leading the Longhorns to an enormous 49-0 victory over the Sooners, the largest win margin in the history of the Red River Rivalry, which dates back to 1990.

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“I’m grateful for the opportunity he gave me, and to finally play in this game is really exciting for me and I know all these guys were pretty excited,” Ewers said. “But growing up a fan, I always wanted to play in this one so it’s pretty special.”

Ewers threw for 289 yards and four touchdowns in his return to action, choosing a great day to have career highs in both categories of his young career. Ewers is a Texas native and was also asked if there were any extra emotions surrounding this game for him between the culmination of his return from injury and his familiar regional ties.

“Yes and no. Coach Sark says play with emotion but don’t play emotional, but obviously with this one, like D Mo (DeMarvion Overshown) said, we all circled this one on the calendar,” Ewers explained. “And it’s special to all of us just because they come into our state, and we own this state, and for them to come in and us to finally get that hat back is a lot of fun, a lot of fun playing with these guys.”

The Longhorns got back their freshman phenom and the Golden Hat trophy all in one weekend, in a fashion that their fanbase will surely remember for a long time. Texas will take their momentum back home to Austin this week, facing Iowa State at home in week 7, as they attempt to continue to build on their recent success in Big 12 conference play.