Steve Sarkisian shares key to Quinn Ewers’ offseason development

In his third year as the head coach at Texas, Steve Sarkisian is facing his highest expectations to date. A large part of that is because this will be star quarterback Quinn Ewers‘ second season as the starter in Austin.

Despite the hype around Ewers, he still has room to grow as a quarterback. Sarkisian knows this too and knows that his offseason development is key, as he explained on Always College Football.

“I think two things,” Sarkisian said. “One, Quinn is really coachable and he’s always been very coachable since the day he got here. So, that’s helpful when you don’t get that resistance. I think, two, Quinn’s ultra competitive, like every great quarterback, and he wants to be the best player he can be.”

One thing that made Quinn Ewers so notable is that he reclassified from the Class of 2022 to the Class of 2021, all the while being a five-star quarterback. He then went to Ohio State before transferring to Texas. All of that was while he was still high school-aged.

So, as Sarkisian explained, Ewers was basically a freshman in 2022.

“Sometimes, early on, in my mind, he was a freshman last year basically. He graduated high school early but did it too late and kind of, it was an awkward situation at Ohio State. Inevitably, there was a big learning curve for him, just about the game, the speed of the game, the nuances of our offense, and sometimes when you don’t know all the nuances and you don’t have all the answers, that can make you feel a little less urgent because your brain is trying to work. So, your body is trying to slow down to keep up with the brain,” Sarkisian said.

“I think that his understanding of what we’re trying to do and why we’re doing what we’re doing has allowed him to play more urgent. And I do agree with you. I think that the details and the minutiae of the position is something that he sees value in now and he’s really putting in the time to make it all come together.”

In 2022, Quinn Ewers completed 58.1% of passes for 2,177 yards and 15 touchdowns to six interceptions.

Steve Sarkisian is fired up by Texas’ QB depth

Beyond Quinn Ewers, Texas has several high profile quarterbacks including Arch Manning and Maalik Murphy. That kind of quarterback depth has Steve Sarkisian excited.

“I’m really fired up about that room. I think, you know, that collectively we are a very talented group, a group that works very hard, and works very well together,” Sarkisian said.

“You know, Greg [McElroy], you’ve been in enough quarterback rooms, you know when that room is good. When guys are engaging with one another, having fun with one another. They’ve got good rapport. They’re competing, but they’re doing it in a way where they’re trying to get better individually, but also supporting the other guy and knowing the things that he’s working on. So, we have that.”