Quinn Ewers fired up for second crack at Alabama in Week 2

Quinn Ewers hasn’t forgotten the pain from Texas‘ loss to Alabama last season. On Monday, the standout QB discussed his eagerness to go toe-to-toe with the Crimson Tide once again.

“I’m pretty excited for every game I play. I’m definitely fired up to play against them, for sure,” Ewers told the press. “I think this whole team is fired up to have the opportunity that we have, so we’re all pretty fired up.”

It’s easy to assume this game has a personal element to it. Last season, Texas fell to Alabama 20-19; just one point short of a program-defining upset. The scoreboard wasn’t the only thing that left the Longhorns hurting.

After rattling off nine completions for 134 yards early, Ewers was injured on a collision with Crimson Tide inside linebacker Dallas Turner. He did not return to the game. Nonetheless, Ewers didn’t let injury ruin his season.

Starting in 10 total contests, the 6-foot-2 quarterback completed 172-of-296 passes (58.1%) for 2,177 yards, 15 touchdowns and six interceptions. While Ewers obviously wants to avenge last season’s loss, he isn’t letting the game’s weight impact his mindset.

“I’m going into this game like any other game,” Ewers said. “I don’t really play the ‘what ifs’ [game]. I’m just focused on what the offense is preparing to do and what the team is preparing to do… This team does a good job of going into each game with the same mindset and every game is a big game for us. We just want to be enamored with us, at the end of the day.”

Quinn Ewers ramps up to big game

Ewers looked fantastic in his 2023 debut. The Texas standout exploded for 260 passing yards and three touchdowns in Texas’ 37-10 triumph over Rice in Week 1. While Ewers finished the game on a high note, he believes his squad looked sluggish early on.

“I don’t think we started as well as we wanted, or as we expect to, but super proud of how we came out in the second half,” Ewers said. “Where last year we might have had some difficulties in the in the third quarter and fourth quarter, I think it just took us a little bit longer than we expected to kind of settle in and play our game.

“There’s definitely some things I’m going to learn from the film, obviously, but you know, it was good to get back out there and compete against someone else that’s not your own team.”

Alabama will be anything but Ewers’ own team. The two programs will face off at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.