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Why Texas QB Quinn Ewers will, gasp, win the Heisman Trophy in 2024
By David Wasson
Published:
In my approximately 137 years covering college football, I have been accused of a great many things by readers. Everything from being a homer to a hater, masochist to a click-chaser … I’ve heard it all. Thing is, more often than not – I know the good stuff when I see it.
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers? He is the good stuff.
Ewers, who leads the No. 4-ranked Texas Longhorns into their maiden SEC adventure in 2024 via a nonconference cupcake in the form of Colorado State on Saturday, has what it takes. Call it pocket presence. Call it quarterback aura. Call it what you will – Ewers has the good stuff.
Which is why I am saying right here, in front of Saban and all the congregation, that Quinn Ewers will be handed the Heisman Trophy on Dec. 14.
*Ducks rocks thrown from all directions*
Feel better now? Good. Maybe now you can listen to the prosecution’s case for Ewers:
First, Ewers was borderline great last season en route to Texas’ Big 12 title and a College Football Playoff berth. He threw for 3,479 yards, 22 touchdowns at a 69% completion clip, and only running into a red-hot Washington team in the national semifinals kept Ewers from playing for the whole enchilada against Michigan.
This year points to Ewers being even more productive, given transfer WR additions Matthew Golden, Isaiah Bond and Silas Bolden. Bond notched 48 catches for 668 yards and 4 touchdowns at Alabama last season, Bolden was vital to the Oregon State offense via 51 catches, 718 yards and 5 touchdowns. And Golden recorded 38 catches for 404 yards and 6 touchdowns for Houston last season.
Second, now a 3-year starter on the 40 Acres, the game has drastically slowed down for Ewers. Back in 2022, he was a redshirt freshman taking shots from everyone who could arrange their digits into the “Horns Down” gesture. Now, a wizened and grizzled redshirt junior, the game will bend to his will – which means making defenses guess wrong with eye movement and even more high-intensity passing output.
Ewers haters/Arch Manning lovers aren’t thrilled about this, but there is no doubt that Ewers is the leader of this Texas program. Which means corralling the intense pressure that roils to a boil every Saturday afternoon in Austin and using that energy to his advantage.
“Week by week, I’ve just been able to kind of sit back and be more comfortable within the program. I’m able to just take things in more, and better than I would have in the past couple of years,” Ewers said earlier this week in a media availability.
“I mean me taking a step back isn’t just like a thing that I do every single play, every single rep. I still have, you know, urgency and want to play at a super high level. I think just being able to be more comfortable … I don’t have so much stuff going on in my head now, I’m more able to slow it down.”
Finally, and let’s be frank with each other, the current Heisman race isn’t exactly setting the world on fire. There are plenty of “good” players out there, like Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel (+500 at FanDuel) and Georgia’s Carson Beck (+800) who will make their case for Mr. Stiff Arm. Not to mention other inter-SEC candidates like Alabama’s Jalen Milroe (+1200, the same as Ewers) and Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart (+1400).
But other than Beck, whose Bulldogs are virtually guaranteed to be great this season, can you really see the Heisman going to Oregon? Or back to Tuscaloosa with Milroe, who was benched just last season? Or to a guy named Jaxson?
In my eyes, the award for “the most outstanding player in college football” is primed for a Texas-sized party. Yes, Ewers is right there with Milroe at +1000 when Week 1 opens this weekend. But after the Longhorns waltz through the pre-SEC slate (and yes, we are including overrated No. 9 Michigan in Ann Arbor in that dance …), just watch as Ewers rockets up the odds charts and into the voters minds.
It is Quinn Ewers’ time, y’all.
Austin knows it. Longhorn Nation knows it. And finally, it is time for the rest of college football to take heed.
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An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
