Quinn Ewers Silences Doubters in Near-Perfect Game vs. Clemson Tigers

Quinn Ewers threw just one score, but led the Texas Longhorns on five touchdown drives to defeat the Clemson Tigers and advance to the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.

Dec 21, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) rolls out to pass against the Clemson Tigers during the second half of the CFP National Playoff first round game at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

In Texas' 38-24 win over Clemson in the first round of the College Football Playoff, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers dominated. After many Texas fans called for him to be benched due to what they believed was a "poor performance," he shined with the season on the line.

When Arch Manning began to get involved in more games, many believed that Steve Sarkisian was moving towards benching Ewers, but they couldn't have been more wrong. With two great quarterbacks, Sarkisian wanted to give teams a different look, and also give Ewers a breather in short-yardage situations.

Even with the addition of the "Manning package" Ewers has shined. He has thrown a touchdown pass in 25 games straight, the longest streak of any quarterback in the country.

He threw for 202 yards, a touchdown and was picked off once on a deflected ball against Clemson. Most importantly, he led Texas to the win, including two touchdown drives that ended in the red zone, something Texas struggled with against Georgia. On two of the touchdowns, Ewers called audibles and running back Jaydon Blue got into the end zone both times, something Sarkisian revealed after the game.

Sarkisian had high praise for Ewers, who he has made clear is going to be his starting quarterback. While everyone questioned Sarkisian, his decision paid off as his experienced quarterback played one of his most complete games of the season.

One area Sarkisian mentioned improvement was in Ewers' ability to make reads in the red zone.

"I thought it was a heck of a touchdown pass and read by Quinn and Gunnar that was a little bit of an adjustment to Gunnar's route predicated on the coverage that we weren't quite anticipating," Sarkisian said. "But that's two guys that trust one another. You could feel Quinn's trust for Gunnar, so all that was great."

Ewers had a similar change in his read on Blue's touchdowns, but on those, he changed the play at the line of scrimmage. While he was given the freedom to call audibles in practice, Sarkisian didn't know if he would actually do it in the game.

"What was interesting about it, I think it was maybe two days before the game, we gave him that look, and we were anticipating it could be one or another call, and we gave him the look and we were giving it to him early, so he was checking it really early, and I said, they might not give it to you this early, and we had a motion on it," Sarkisian said. "I said, you might have to check it after the motion and then check the play. Sure enough, it happened tonight. He motioned on Davis and then he saw it and then he checked it and got to the run. That's just time together, time on task, he and I, and him trusting when we tell him certain things like that it might happen that way, him trusting it and then executing
it. Kind of a cool moment because that's having a three-year starter who's been in your system is very comfortable doing that type of stuff."

A three-year starter, this was most likely Ewers' last game at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. But now, he's just focused on getting his team one win closer to the national championship. Last year, Ewers and Texas were one play short of advancing to that stage. This year, the team is stronger and better than ever while playing its best football.

While Ewers isn't forgetting about the College Football Playoff Semifinal loss last year, he's putting it behind him and using it as motivation going forward.

"Yeah, I think it motivates the entire team," Ewers said. "Us being so close last year, a couple plays away from going to the National Championship, and then who knows what happens. But you can't live in that dream. We just try to go 1-0 each and every day, each and every week, and then see where that gets us."

Now, a red-hot Ewers and Texas will face Arizona State, the Big 12 Champion in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, back in Atlanta. The SEC runner-ups are a huge favorite over the Sun Devils, and Ewers and the Longhorns are looking forward to the challenge.

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