Quinn Ewers gushes over experience with Buckeyes Ryan Day, C.J. Stroud, 'I belonged there'
Quinn Ewers may have only spent four months at Ohio State, but he has some great memories from his time as a Buckeye. Three years after moving back to Texas, Ewers is gearing up to face Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl. He’s pleased with his decision to come […]
Quinn Ewers may have only spent four months at Ohio State, but he has some great memories from his time as a Buckeye.
Three years after moving back to Texas, Ewers is gearing up to face Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl. He’s pleased with his decision to come back home and play for the Longhorns, but he also looks back fondly on his early days with Ohio State.
“Learned a lot while I was there under Coach (Ryan) Day, and C.J. (Stroud), and just that whole room was awesome to be around. Super thankful for that time that I got to spend there,” Ewers said Monday. “So I don't regret any decision I've made on going or anything like that. 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 and I wanted to go be a part of something like that. And the reason 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 time just being from Texas.”
Ewers, who was part of the 2022 recruiting class, decided to jump up to the 2021 class mainly to start earning NIL money. He felt it was the right move since Texas didn’t let high school athletes make these deals. It wasn’t easy for him to go from being Southlake Carroll High School's star quarterback to sitting on the Ohio State bench, especially after reclassifying just as preseason camp was kicking off.
“For me to kind of go in in the middle of fall camp and practice at a college level was definitely a shock, for sure,” Ewers said. “It's definitely tough whenever I've never really been a backup in my life, and obviously C.J. was very much deserving to be playing, for sure. … But it's tough when you're supposed to be a senior and you see all your buddies who you grew up with still playing football, and I'm just sitting obviously because I wasn't prepared to go play a game.”
Even though he was ranked as the top prospect, he only got to play in one game at Ohio State, where he handed the ball off a couple of times in a big win over Michigan State. Still, Ewers believes his short time there helped shape him into the quarterback he is today, thanks to the valuable lessons he learned during practices and meetings.
“They did a really good job of preparing from week to week, and that's the first time that I really got to see it firsthand at this level, how to watch film and how to prepare for the upcoming game. Because obviously it's different from the high school level. And getting to see that firsthand, I think, was awesome for me,” Ewers said.
What he really cherishes from that season is the friendships he made with other players. He’s looking forward to reconnecting with some of them this week.
“Yeah, it's going to be awesome just to get to see all those guys again,” Ewers said. “I mean, in the semester that I was there, I feel like I made some pretty good relationships while I was there. And those guys were fun to be around when I was there. They took me in in kind of a weird time for sure as me coming in kind of in the middle of fall camp, and some of those guys just kind of saying ‘What's up?’ to me, it was as simple as that and kind of welcoming me in, and I felt like I belonged there. And it's going to be fun to get to see those guys.”
One of his closest pals is Kyle McCord, another freshman quarterback from his class who eventually transferred to Syracuse after three years at OSU. Ewers also has fond memories of his former roommate Jack Sawyer and thinks it’ll be nostalgic to see all of them again, even as they compete on opposite sides.
“To me, those relationships feel like if I'd see them walking down the side of the road, it'd be like I was hanging out with them yesterday,” Ewers said. “I just feel like the relationships that I built there, they were definitely super special.”
Ryan Day, Ohio State’s coach, had nice things to say about Ewers when asked about him. He knows things didn’t go quite as planned for Ewers in Columbus, but he respects him a lot as both a person and as a quarterback.
“He decided to come really in the middle of preseason camp for us, and so it was a little bit strange, but with college football, you look to adapt the best you can. And then C.J. really had a great season that season, and he decided he really wanted to play, and boy, it was disappointing for us, but we certainly understood,” Day said. “And 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. And 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.”
Now, though, both Ewers and Ohio State are focused on the game, with a chance to reach the national championship on the line. Safety Caleb Downs knows the stakes well; he faced Ewers last year while playing for Alabama, where Ewers threw for an impressive 349 yards and three touchdowns in a win over the Crimson Tide.
“Really smart quarterback, knows how to operate their offense, puts the ball in the right places and then Coach (Steve) Sarkisian does a great job putting him in positions to win,” Downs said of the challenges of defending Ewers.
Ohio State’s defense will definitely be a tough challenge for Ewers, especially since they’ve been stellar this season, only allowing 152.4 passing yards per game. He’s confident in his abilities to lead the Longhorns to victory, but he also knows that the Texas offense needs to be at its peak to take down the powerhouse Buckeyes.
“We just gotta go play our game and execute at a high level and have first- and second-down wins that will ultimately lead to shorter third downs and more manageable third downs. And if we're able to do that, then the drive will continue to work down the field, and then obviously we have to score in the red zone,” Ewers said. “Field goals, I don't think will get it done.”
