What's next for Quinn Ewers?
Quinn Ewers‘ first season as the Longhorns’ starting quarterback had high highs and low lows.
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Highs, like his performance versus Oklahoma and his first quarter versus Alabama. Lows, like his injury versus Alabama and the difficult stretch of games on the other side of Texas’ bye.
His 31-for-47 performance versus Washington in the Valero Alamo Bowl was somewhere in the middle. He wasn’t the culprit behind Texas’ loss to the Huskies as he made several high-level throws, some caught and some dropped, throughout the course of the game. But he was also part of an offense that sputtered out of the gates in the first half before finding better footing in the second thirty minutes.
“You know, after that first drive, we kind of got it rolling,” Ewers said following the Alamo Bowl about the UT offense’s second-half performance. “It’s always good to have that first touchdown, and it’s awesome to have a first drive coming out of the locker room to score.”
Ewers, who missed contests versus UTSA, Texas Tech, and West Virginia because of a shoulder injury, finished the season with 2177 yards and 15 touchdowns to six interceptions. He completed 58 percent of his 296 passes, showing flashes of what made him one of the more heralded quarterback prospects in recent memory but not consistently enough to help the Longhorns to nine wins for the second time in the past 10 seasons.
For a player in his redshirt freshman year, Ewers often played in a way typical of talented freshmen. He made good throws and decisions, but those were balanced by youthful mistakes stemming from the lack of live Power 5 football game reps. However, the calculus may be different for Ewers in the minds of many considering he was a Five-Star Plus+ quarterback in the 2021 class. Lofty, “generational” expectations follow a player of that ranking, and his games versus Oklahoma State, Kansas State, TCU, Kansas, and Baylor were a far cry from that descriptor.
The time between the regular season finale versus Baylor and Thursday’s Alamo Bowl were critical for Ewers. He took the opportunity the 15 or so practices available to the Longhorns provided to improve multiple aspects of his game. The 369-yard showing versus Washington, buoyed by a last-second 49-yard heave to Casey Cain, showed progress from what seen in November.
That especially holds true considering Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, down his top two running backs, felt comfortable enough to make Ewers the centerpiece of the bowl gameplan.
So what’s next for the mulletted quarterback? No longer will he have competition in the form of Hudson Card in his position group, considering Card recently announced a transfer to Purdue. Maalik Murphy and Charles Wright are returning for 2023, and another Five-Star Plus+ quarterback in Arch Manning will join AJ Milwee’s room in a few weeks.
In addition to the on-field improvement, Ewers mentioned he needs to step into the leadership void made by the departures of Robinson and Johnson.
“For me, I think I need to fill more of a vocal role on this team, be more of a vocal leader instead of just leading by what I do on and off the field,” Ewers said. “I think that’s the main thing for me, honestly. I need to maybe mature in that area a little bit more.”
That’s a maturation process most young quarterbacks go through during their career. It’ll be a significant adjustment for Ewers, who rarely takes on a “rah-rah” personality, even when on the field.
It’ll be one of many parts of the growth of Ewers, who will enter the spring with competition in the quarterback room but with a significant step-up on remaining Texas’ QB1 for the 2023 season.
