Kirk Herbstreit on Quinn Ewers: 'It's his team'
ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit was one of the featured speakers at this week’s On3 NIL Elite Series, offering his wisdom to some of the top prospects in high school football at the event. When he wasn’t talking about the bright future ahead of 2024 recruits, he took a minute to sit down with JD PicKell to discuss a host of topics.
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PicKell brought up Texas and Five-Star Plus+ early enrollee Arch Manning and sought Herbstreit’s thoughts on the young passer. Instead, Herbstreit dished on the other Five-Star Plus+ quarterback on the Texas roster: incumbent starter Quinn Ewers.
“Well, (Arch) has been on campus for a few weeks,” Herbstreit told PicKell. “We’re going to sit there and have definitive comments about who he is? I wasn’t surprised. It’s the world we’re in. What’s the latest name? Quinn Ewers was the most anticipated brand name to come out of high school football in forever. Now all of a sudden, here comes Arch Manning. It’s, what about Arch? That guy you just threw to the side is supposed to be really good.”
Ewers began his career at Ohio State, Herbstreit’s alma mater. After entering the transfer portal following the 2021 campaign, Ewers elected to come back home and join the Longhorn football program under head coach Steve Sarkisian. Ewers won the battle for the starting job in 2022’s training camp over Hudson Card.
Ewers started 10 games for the Longhorns, missing three due to a shoulder injury. He was 172-for-296 for 2177 yards with 15 touchdowns over six interceptions. He also added a rushing touchdown in the season finale versus Baylor.
There were rough patches for Ewers, especially in the games following the 49-0 rout of Oklahoma. Herbstreit acknowledged those rough patches should help Ewers this season.
“Talking and listening to Texas folks off the air, it sounded like it was pretty obvious that Quinn and experience — think about what he’s been through,” Herbstreit said. “He went to Ohio State essentially as a senior in high school. Ends up going back, transfers to Texas back home, deals with a lot of scrutiny, and what that does is it hardens you.”
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Herbstreit continued, “when you become a hardened veteran, you become a different guy. Not to mention how he played last year, there were some ups but there were some downs. He had to endure that. What you see now, even though he’s only in his first year getting done, is a guy that’s been through it. I think it allows him to play at a different level of maturity. Arch has probably got a really bright future, but for me, right now it’s Quinn Ewers’ chance. It’s his opportunity. It’s his team.”
As for the Longhorns’ future with Manning?
“Until (Ewers) leaves, I think that’ll be the case,” Herbstreit said. “Then, we’ll see what Arch can do down the road.”
