One of the biggest stories in the Steve Sarkisian era at Texas was totally unexpected.

It was a sleepy Friday around the Texas football complex in August 2022. The Longhorns were getting ready for their second scrimmage inside Royal-Memorial Stadium with the season opener two weeks away.

Sarkisian met with reporters after practice and left the interview room. No big deal. Then, UT’s longtime sports information director John Bianco got a text from the coach. Bianco looked at everyone in the room and said, “Quinn Ewers will be the starting quarterback.”

On Monday, Ewers revealed what happened before Sarkisian sent that program-shifting text message. The coach met with his quarterback, turned the reigns over to Ewers and kickstarted a three-year run that’s led to the College Football Playoffs semifinals against Ohio State.

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“Well, I can tell you my first fall camp here, obviously, I was battling with Hudson Card to earn the starting job,” Ewers told reporters Monday. “And then towards the end of that, Sark and me had a good conversation where he pretty much told me that it’s my job.

“I think that was a big step for me, obviously, because it makes things a whole lot easier whenever you do know that you're going to be the quarterback, especially the starter. It just helped my confidence, for sure.”

The school sent out a news release to make it official. Sarkisian’s decision turbo-charged the fan base going into the 2022 season. Ewers proved his head coach correct with a sizzling first quarter against No. 1 Alabama in the second game before the quarterback was knocked out with a shoulder injury.

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Quinn Ewers didn’t spend a lot of time at Ohio State. It was essentially four months on the calendar. So it’s not like he left a huge legacy with the Buckeyes during the 2021 season. Still, Ewers recounted his time in scarlet and gray on Monday with reporters and admitted “I felt like I belonged […]

“That year, there were definitely some ups and downs going on with the injury,” Ewers said. “We came out the first quarter against Alabama in 2022, and we were rolling as an offense. I feel like that, obviously, helped build confidence in me and then everybody around me.

“From then on out, it's kind of just built on from then.”

Card ended up transferring to Purdue. The Longhorns also saw third-stringer Maalik Murphy transfer to Duke. Arch Manning is now waiting in the wings to take over the starting job in 2025 as Ewers is expected to go pro.

The confidence Sarkisian showed in Ewers then is exactly what the quarterback has in his teammates now.

The veteran checked out of two passing plays into run plays that led to touchdowns against Clemson. Then, Ewers changed the protection at the line of scrimmage on fourth-and-13 against Arizona State and ended up throwing a 28-yard touchdown pass to Matthew Golden in overtime.

“We had our backs up against the wall for sure in that game,” Ewers said. “Fourth-and 13 in a moment we lad to have it. Matt made a great play on a double move, and I think that single play allowed us to regain momentum and go on to win the rest of that game.”

Ewers followed that with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Gunnar Helm in double overtime and a scintillating two-point conversion throw to Golden in the 39-31 win.

“There’s a lot that Quinn does, whether that's audibling routes, protections, stuff like that,” center Jake Majors said. “There’s been a lot of plays that go unnoticed where he's getting us into a slide that ended up picking up a boundary blitz that got us a first down that nobody talks about. So, stuff like that.

“You guys may never see it. It may seem like a routine play, but to us, that’s Quinn doing his job, being a veteran quarterback and leading his team by executing at a high level.”