Amid speculation of a potential transfer, Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers reportedly plans to enter the 2025 NFL Draft, according to Anwar Richardson.
The former No. 1 recruit would likely have a long list of opportunities should he return to school, but with the College Football Playoff in front of him, we may not hear any official word until after the Longhorns’ run comes to a close. For now, though, speculation rises as the Texas-Ewers era logs its second playoff berth.
Quinn Ewers Reportedly Plans To Enter Draft, Close Door on Transfer
Ewers would have had plenty of suitors had he entered the transfer portal — in three seasons as a starter for the Longhorns, Ewers has improved each year. He threw 25 touchdowns to nine interceptions across the regular season and SEC title game while averaging 242.2 pass yards per game, good for 30th in the country.
He led Texas to the four-team College Football Playoff in 2023 and is currently leading the No. 5-ranked Longhorns ahead of the 2024 CFP.
They’ll match up with the No. 12-seeded Clemson Tigers, granted a spot in the field as the ACC’s champions. In a new twist to the CFP, the first-round matchup will take place on the higher seeds’ home field. In this case, the Tigers will travel to Austin, Texas, to take on the Ewers-led Longhorns.
Amid this opportunity, something that might’ve factored into Ewers’ decision to enter the draft may be Texas’ future outlook at the quarterback position. Five-star backup quarterback Arch Manning, a member of the 2023 recruiting class, has been included in the game plan throughout the season with read-option and quarterback-power packages.
Manning also started in two games while Ewers dealt with a strained oblique in late September and early October, adding to further fanfare.
The Longhorns scored 51 and 35 points in those games — albeit against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks and Mississippi State Bulldogs — while Manning showed extreme flashes of excellence while combining for five total touchdowns.
Those performances led to questions of whether or not Ewers would be given his starting job back. He was, but not without controversy.
In his second game back, down 20-0 in the second quarter against the then-No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs, Ewers was abruptly yanked from the game for the final two series of the first half. A punt and a Manning sack-fumble were the ensuing results before Ewers was reinserted into an eventual 30-15 loss. However, the damage may have been greater than that: a crack in the trust between head coach Steve Sarkisian and his starting quarterback.
In Sarkisian’s words: “I was just trying to settle Quinn down a little bit, try to give us a little bit of a spark.”
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This sort of situation is not unheard of — just last season, three-year Kansas State starting quarterback Will Howard entered the transfer portal, largely due to the belief that the coaching staff would start four-star freshman quarterback Avery Johnson in 2024. Johnson appeared in 12 of 13 games in 2023, primarily in running situations — similar to Manning.
Howard may have seen the writing on the wall and jetted off to Ohio State for his final year of eligibility.
While the situations aren’t entirely the same—Howard was not on NFL radars last season while Ewers has been his whole career—both involve a highly touted backup whose time was eventually coming.
In the same report from Richardson, Manning has no plans to transfer and will more than likely assume the starting quarterback role with the Longhorns in 2025.
Ewers has been a tremendous college player throughout his entire career; he may become a great quarterback in the NFL. However, it goes to show that not even the best can potentially overstay their welcome.
Regardless of the future, both Ewers and Manning are “dialed in on Clemson,” as they’ll host the Tigers in Austin on Dec. 21 at 4 p.m. ET, broadcast on TNT and Max with a chance to advance to the quarterfinals and face the No. 4 Arizona State Sun Devils in the Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day.
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