Recruiting at the Division I college football level can be a tricky ordeal all by itself. When the transfer portal and NIL deals get factored in, it becomes even more complicated.
Former Ohio State and current Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud felt the effects. Quinn Ewers who was the highest-rated recruit ever decided to reclassify and enroll early at OSU. Everything happened somewhat quickly when Ewers found out that the state of Texas would not allow high school athletes to participate in NIL deals. The business-savvy Ewers decided it would be in his best interest to forego his senior year of high school and head to Columbus.
Ewers only lasted a year in Scarlet and Gray before he decided to hit the transfer portal and return home to play for the Longhorns. But the whole process left an impression on the presumed starter, Stroud. The former Buckeye QB sat down with a Houston sports talk show and shared how he felt disrespected that Ewers was coming in two weeks before the start of the season.
You can hear Stroud’s own words in the segment from the Beltway Boyz Twitter account below.
Cj stroud talking about why he has a chip on his shoulder and how he felt disrespected when ohio st brought quinn ewers in 2 weeks before his first game. pic.twitter.com/XHIfHADIJy
— BELTWAY BOYZ (@beltwayboyz) May 8, 2023
Sometimes guys have to find extra motivation. The case of Ewers coming in early was most likely just a case of coaches having to make last-minute adjustments not to lose the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the nation. It’s doubtful that Stroud felt a real threat of losing his starting spot to a kid fresh out of high school, but again to compete at that level, one has to stay sharp. Each individual player has to figure out how to up their level of play.
The personal motivation must have worked. For his career, Stroud threw for 8,123 yards and 85 touchdowns on 575-of-830 (69.3%) attempts. He won the Big Ten’s Offensive Player and Quarterback of the Year in both 2021 and 2022. He is second all-time in program history in career passing yards and passing touchdowns.
Stroud seems to be the kind of guy who isn’t satisfied with just getting to the NFL. He’s probably already figuring out what the chip on his shoulder will be to keep him at the top of his game. If so, Texan fans should be in for a treat.
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