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Quinn Ewers' Legacy: By The Numbers

by:Paul Wadlington•about 8 hours
Texas QB Quinn Ewers and TE Gunnar Helm
© Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

There are a lot of angles to be considered when discussing Quinn Ewers‘ legacy at Texas: emotional, contextual, perseverance through pain and criticism, program revival, a lot of wins and a few excruciating losses, but the numbers and the record books live forever.

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My colleagues will be chiming in on what Quinn Ewers’ time at Texas meant for the program and the resurgence of Longhorn football under Steve Sarkisian (and I may have some more thoughts as the postseason smoke clears) but he left an indelible statistical mark.

PASSING

Ewers’ career passing ranks him comfortably in the Top 5 of most statistical categories at Texas all-time.

He finishes his career with 1135 attempts, 737 completions, 9,128 yards, 68 touchdowns and 24 interceptions while completing 64.9% of his passes at 7.8 yards per attempt.

He has a career passing efficiency rating of 148.

Those numbers were compiled over three seasons, some truncated by injury.

His best statistical season was as a sophomore both by the counting stats and advanced metrics.

Ewers finishes as the #3 QB in Longhorn history in passing yardage with 9,128 yards, including two 3000+ passing seasons in his final two years. Only Sam Ehlinger and Colt McCoy top him all-time and he’s ahead of Major Applewhite and James Brown in that Top 5.

He’s also 3rd all time in career passing touchdowns, behind Sam and Colt.

He’s 4th all time in total offense (rushing + passing) and as you’d expect, one Vincent Paul Young enters the conversation to bump him down. No. 10 could run a little bit.

Ewers is also 4th in total passing games over 300+ yards.

A career 2.8 to 1 TD to INT ration isn’t shabby and only 2.1% of his career attempts were intercepted.

Despite the media gunslinger rep, only Ehlinger took care of the ball better once it left his hand (1.8%).

RUSHING

No one confused Ewers with a dual-threat, as -59 career rushing yards on 140 attempts will attest, but he did scamper for 8 touchdowns and was capable of timely runs.

Applewhite’s Longhorn record of -294 career rushing yards remains very safe.

WINNERNESS

OK, winnerness may not be the purest or most objective of stats.

Fans like QBs that win and they tend to give the position too much credit or too much grief depending on the game result. It’s in the position description. Weak minds need not apply.

No QB at Texas will ever touch McCoy at 45-8 for both volume and winning percentage combined while Vince Young’s 30-2 record is sterling.

James Street’s 20-0 is pretty slick (and Slick).

Quinn won some games in Austin.

He finishes 27-9 all-time (tied for 4th all-time in wins with Ehlinger), but he also led Texas to a Big 12 title game (Game MVP Ewers threw for 452 and 4 touchdowns), a SEC title game that Texas lost in overtime and back-to-back College Football Playoff semifinals.

He played in a lot of consequential and meaningful games and Texas won 75% of them when he was under center.

No other college QB boasts road wins at A&M, at Michigan, at Alabama while going 2-1 against OU in the Cotton Bowl with a playoff win over Clemson. That’s a pretty good set of scalps.

As an aside, hooplehead bar bet money is there for the taking with this question.

Who won more games by percentage and wins at Texas: Simms or Applewhite?

Simms 26-6 (81.3%).

Applewhite 22-8 (73.3%)

And now a 25 year old Simms-Applewhite debate revives in Ewers statistical appreciation thread. Good job by me.

Let me quickly distract you with commentary from someone less polarizing…

Clutch ball, Quinn.

Final Thoughts

The number is the numbers.

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Ewers is one of the best to ever to do it at Texas.

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