If you thought the coaching carousel of the past year was wild, boy do I have another carousel for you. The quarterbacks.
It began with Quinn Ewers opting to leave the Ohio State Buckeyes just one semester after his arrival. He initially committed to Texas before flipping to Ohio State and reclassifying in the 2021 class. With CJ Stroud as the starter, Ewers wasn’t likely to see much playing time until the 2023 season, at best.
After a brief recruitment across the state that involved Texas, TCU, and Texas Tech, Ewers came full circle and committed to the Longhorns. Head coach Steve Sarkisian landed the big fish from the transfer portal. While Texas watched their rivals north of the Red River lose both five-star quarterbacks on the roster and another five-star commit.
Based on the quarterback carousel winners and losers from 247Sports, Texas came away looking stronger than they did in 2021. They were among the top schools, along with the USC Trojans who landed former Sooners quarterback Caleb Williams.
What 247Sports Says…
Texas lost a good Power Five starter in (Casey) Thompson. But it added a first-round talent at quarterback in (Quinn) Ewers, who can simply make throws most people cannot. In Steve Sarkisian’s offense Ewers could well be the missing piece to, ahem, help Texas return to the success it had in the 2000s. There’s a winding path between Ewers’ arrival and that sort of destination. But Ewers’ arrival makes that feel possible.
Ewers’ high school head coach Riley Dodge had high praise for his former quarterback. “I think probably the one thing that’s the most impressive about him is how twitchy he is as a thrower,” Dodge said. “He can put the ball on the perimeter — quick game, spits, RPOs, I’m talking about from the line of scrimmage to 12 yards down the field — better than anybody I’ve ever seen live.”
It won’t be a job that Ewers is just handed for the 2022 season, but one he will have to win the job outright. Not that he isn’t capable but he is battling a couple of quarterbacks that are talented. Hudson Card won the starting job in 2021 but was pulled in favor of Casey Thompson. Coming out of the 2020 recruiting class, Card was the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the country.
Maalik Murphy is the 2022 signee to pay attention to. He was initially rated as a five-star prospect. He is a bit raw in terms of playing the position but he has a high ceiling. Of the three passers, Card has the most experience but even that is limited.
Ewers has all the tools to be the guy at Texas, and I fully expect him to win the job by the time they open the season against UL-Monroe on Sept. 3.