Ohio State quarterback Quinn Ewers to enter NCAA transfer portal

Ohio State quarterback Quinn Ewers has informed the Buckeyes that he is entering the transfer portal, the school confirmed. Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel was the first to report the news.

Ewers, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound freshman, logged just a handful of snaps this season. Ewers was a five-star recruit; he was the No. 1 recruit in the 2021 consensus rankings and No. 2 in the 2021 On3 rankings, trailing only Oklahoma’s Caleb Williams.

Following a preseason quarterback competition, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day named redshirt freshman C.J. Stroud the starting quarterback in August, moving Ewers to the bench.

“I think he would tell you that it’s been hard for him,” Day said before the Akron game. “Kind of jumping into this thing during the preseason, and then being out for a bit of a stretch. We’re trying to get him as much information as we can, but there’s a lot of catching up to be done there.”

Despite being the Ohio State Buckeyes’ fourth-string quarterback, Ewers — who was prohibited from accepting any name, image and likeness deals as a high schooler in Texas — graduated a year early, went to Ohio State and secured NIL deals worth north of of $1 million.

Ewers’ decision comes the same week Ohio State’s third-string quarterback, Jack Miller, also entered the transfer portal. That leaves Stroud and Kyle McCord as the two quarterbacks on the Buckeyes’ roster.

A native of Southlake, Texas, Ewers attended Southlake Carroll High School. Ewers played in eight games as a junior, throwing for 2,442 yards and 28 touchdowns, while leading the Southlake Carroll Dragons to the 6A state championship game. He was a finalist for the Landry Award, a distinction given annually to the top player in North Texas. Ewers finished his high school career with 6,445 passing yards, 73 touchdowns and eight interceptions in 25 games.

Ewers received well over 20 Power Five offers throughout the recruitment process, but Ohio State was the first program to offer. The Buckeyes first extended a scholarship offer after he attended Buckeyes summer camp, just months before Ewers began ninth grade.