Quinn Ewers renaissance leads Texas to blowout win over Florida

Quinn Ewers throws five touchdowns, looks like old self in dominant 49-17 Texas Longhorns win over the Florida Gators.

The Texas Longhorns returned to early season form on Saturday with a dominant 49-17 win over the undermanned Florida Gators. After a missed FG on the first drive, the Longhorns rolled off two touchdowns on the next two possessions, which included converting a fouth-and-one on their own 24-yard-line, to grab a lead that would never be threatened.

UT took a 35-0 lead to the locker room at halftime and nabbed an interception on the first play of the second half, which Quinn Ewers and the offense converted into another TD.

Up 42-0, the Longhorns started to replace starters with backups, which included Arch Manning in relief of Ewers. The Gators showed a little bit of life, managing 17 points before the end of the game. But it was far too little and far too late against a Texas team that looked revived after a bye week.

No one in burnt orange looked more revived that Ewers. The Southlake junior was 19 of 27 for 333 yards, 5 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Ewers looked more like the confident Heisman candidate we saw in the Big House against Michigan.

We have speculated since Ewers’ return that his oblique injury wasn’t completely healed. Especially when compared to the recovery time of other similar injuries, like Georgia QB JT Daniels in 2021 who suffered the same injury in Week 2 and wasn’t cleared to play until mid-October. That injury impacts your throwing motion which affects your arm strength. Since returning against Oklahoma, Ewers arm has looked weak. Not against UF.

Coming off of another bye week, Ewers had a live arm and threw with noticeably more zip. He also was more vertical than he’s been this season. There were big passes all day to wide receivers that seemed wide open. Ten Longhorns caught passes. Florida was down multiple DBs and it showed. Ewers picked them apart.

Color analyst Jesse Palmer broke down Ewers footwork from early in the season to the Georgia game on the ABC broadcast. Injuries can also impact technique. Ewers footwork has definitely declined since his comeback. If Steve Sarkisian and the Texas coaching staff identified and fixed Ewers footwork, it should help Ewers stay in form for the rest of the season.

Texas running game hammered the Florida defense for 210 yards. The Texas defense only looked threatened with backups on the field. It was complete domination by the Horns. If Quinn Ewers can play to this level over the next three weeks and the defense can play with this aggression, Texas should make it to the SEC title game. Of course, on paper the Gators are the weakest opponent on the schedule.