The third-year starter for the Longhorns spent a semester in Columbus after re-classifying from the 2022 recruiting class. Now Ewers will face his old team on Friday.
A little more than three years later, the image of Quinn Ewers seems almost apocryphal, if not sacrilegious.
The lifelong fan of the Texas Longhorns is wearing his formerly trademark bleached-blond mullet and the scarlet and gray of the Ohio State Buckeyes on the sideline of a game against the Michigan State Spartans in Columbus.
Less than two weeks later, Ewers entered the NCAA transfer portal after a semester with the Buckeyes. Less than two weeks after that, the No. 1 prospect in the 2021 recruiting class with a perfect rating by 247Sports returned to the Lone Star State, becoming a huge coup for first-year head coach Steve Sarkisian in committing to Texas despite a 5-7 debut on the Forty Acres by Sarkisian.
On Friday in the Cotton Bowl, the college career for Ewers comes full circle as the Longhorns take on the Buckeyes at AT&T Stadium in the College Football Playoff semifinal, a legacy game for the third-year Texas starter that also happens to come against his former team.
Even in the early stages, it was a journey that pitted the two programs — in August 2020, Ewers committed to Texas and head coach Tom Herman, a seismic decision that sent quarterback dominoes toppling, including 2021 Longhorns quarterback commit Jalen Milroe quickly flipping to the Crimson Tide.
But Ewers’ pledge to the program he cheered for his entire life ended two months later following the controversy about “The Eyes of Texas” amidst the social-justice movement that year with the image of Longhorns quarterback Sam Ehlinger singing the school song by himself on the field of the Cotton Bowl after a hard-fought, four-overtime loss to the Sooners.
By the time that Ewers officially re-opened his recruitment, Ohio State was already trending with the help of current head coach Ryan Day taking the extraordinary step of officially offering the eventual Southlake Carroll standout when he was still in middle school.
“He was one of the first eighth graders that I ever offered. He was in our camp here in the Woody [Hayes Athletic Center] and I saw a young… he was a boy at the time, really, who just had a tremendous release,” Day said on Friday.
“I remember grabbing him and grabbing his dad and said, ‘Man, you’ve got a bright future ahead of you. I don’t know if this is good or bad, but we’re going to offer you a scholarship to Ohio State, even in eighth grade.’ Again, I don’t know if that’s legal or not, but we did.”
The on-field success of the Buckeyes and the early relationship built between Day and Ewers paid off less than a month after the quarterback’s decommitment from the Longhorns.
“We went through the process, and boy, it was strange how it all shook out. He decided to come, really, in the middle of preseason camp for us. And so it was a little bit strange. But again, with college football, you look to adapt the best you can,” Day said.
For Ewers, the differing trajectories of the Ohio State program and the demise of the Herman era provided stark contrasts.
“The main reason I went was I felt like I had a great relationship with the coaching staff and they were winning a lot of games — I wanted to go be a part of something like that,” Ewers said.
The re-classification decision by Ewers was also made after the Texas legislature passed a law that high school athletes could not receive compensation for their Name, Image, and Likeness.
“Me and my family had a pretty big opportunity in front of us,” Ewers said. “We felt it was a good decision for me to forgo my senior year and enroll early at Ohio State and have the opportunity to have some good money in our pockets as a family.”
At Ohio State, Ewers signed NIL deals reportedly worth several million dollars.
Now the Cotton Bowl matchup will afford Ewers a chance to reconnect with some of his old teammates, including standout defensive end Jack Sawyer, who roomed with Ewers in 2021.
“It’s going to be awesome just to see all those guys again. In the semester that I was there, I feel like I made some pretty good relationships while I was there,” Ewers said, going on to mention his ongoing friendship with Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord, who transferred from Ohio State in late 2023.
“Those guys were fun to be around when I was there. They took me in during kind of a weird time for sure, me coming in during the middle of fall camp. Some of those guys just saying what’s up to me, as simple as that, and welcoming me in,” Ewers continued.
The football situation wasn’t easy for Ewers, though. He was used to being the starter, but his youth and late arrival in Columbus were massive impediments to actually competing to be QB1 for the Buckeyes. Shortly after Ewers made it to campus, redshirt freshman CJ Stroud was named the starting quarterback, quickly taking advantage of his opportunity.
By throwing for 4,435 yards with 44 touchdowns and only six interceptions, Stroud had an elite 2021 season, earning recognition as the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Big Ten Quarterback of the Year, and Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year while earning an invite to New York as a Heisman Trophy Finalist.
“I definitely had to grow up super fast,” Ewers said. “Fall camp is not easy. Practice at a college level was definitely a shock, for sure.”
Even though Ewers had to spend the season on the bench, the time practicing with one of the best programs in college football and learning from one of the best position rooms in the sport made an impact on Ewers.
“What I really learned from the guys in that room is really how to be a college quarterback and what it takes to be a college quarterback, from preparing in the film room and taking that on to practice and then, ultimately, the game,” Ewers said.
But Stroud’s rise ensured that Ewers wouldn’t have a chance to compete for the starting job at Ohio State until the 2023 season at the earliest.
“CJ really had a great season that season and [Ewers] decided he really wanted to play. It was disappointing for us, but we certainly understood,” Day said.
After entering the portal, Ewers became one of the early building blocks for Sarkisian as he attempted to rebuild the program and the culture on the Forty Acres.
“The reason that I came back to Texas was to be closer to where I’m from and just closer to the resources that I have and the relationships that I’ve built over me just being from Texas,” Ewers said.
There was also that lifelong fandom for the burnt orange and white — “It’s always been my dream to be a Longhorn,” Ewers wrote in the Players’ Tribune a few months after arriving in Austin.
Since Ewers transferred, Day has kept track of his former player.
“From afar, I’ve watched him, and he’s got a lot of talent. He’s a really good player. He comes from a great family. He’s had a great career at Texas and a lot of people here still have good relationships with him and think the world of him,” Day said.
At Texas in 2022, Ewers won the starting job over incumbent Hudson Card in preseason camp, experiencing growing pains during an 8-5 season before boosting the Longhorns to the Big 12 title and the program’s first berth in the College Football Playoff. This season, Texas has maintained its high level of play, appearing in the SEC Championship game and becoming the only program to make it to the expanded CFP, as well.
In the process, Ewers became one of the most productive and winningest quarterbacks in school history. But after missing an opportunity to cement his legacy with a trip to the national championship game last year, Ewers has another chance to define where he ranks in the pantheon of Texas passers in a matchup against his old program as the Horns head to AT&T Stadium in Arlington as the underdogs.