Quinn Ewers looking to prove he has improved his marksmanship in Texas' passing game

SAN ANTONIO — Quinn Ewers went hunting south of Pleasanton with his father during the handful of days Longhorn football players had off for Christmas.

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“I recently shot my biggest deer I’ve ever shot, which was pretty fun for me,” he said on Tuesday.

What did he use? A .223? A 30-30?

“I shot it with my bow,” Ewers said. He claimed the buck scored 185.

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Like playing quarterback, bow hunting requires a unique skill set.

“You’ve got to be quiet,” Ewers said. “You’ve got to be real still. Those deer, they’re only 10 to 30 yards away. They’ll sniff you out, too.”

The payoff for a successful stalk can be great. Ewers said they sent the buck to the processor and are waiting on sausage and backstrap from the kill.

The payoffs for successfully hitting targets with completed passes at the quarterback position can be similarly rewarding.

But in the back half of the season, Ewers let a few too many opportunities slip out of his sights.

“I thought I had it all figured out after that Oklahoma game, honestly,” Ewers said of his 21-of-31 outing for 289 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception in a 49-0 win. “But there’s so much more to it.”

That was something Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian noted on Wednesday when he explained early tastes of glory aren’t always indicators of smooth sailing the rest of the way for young quarterbacks.

“I think one thing, it’s hard when you’re a young player and you have some instant success,” Sarkisian said. “You do think you have it figured out, and there’s a lot that goes into playing quarterback at this level whether it’s on the field or off the field, fighting through adversity, persevering through adversity.”

“I think Quinn’s had to do that. He’s been exposed to a lot, the good and the bad, the tough times in game, the tough times off the field.”

Ewers commented earlier in the season that in high school he would have to prepare for three or four coverages from an opponent for an entire game. In college, he could possibly see that many on a given drive. That was evident during a three-interception outing versus Oklahoma State where he was 19-of-39 and 4-of-16 on passes intended for Xavier Worthy.

“After the Oklahoma State game, I was like ‘yeah, I’ve got to really dig deep into these defenses and really figure out tips and certain things like remainders that will help me figure it out,'” Ewers said. “At the end of the day, that’s football. It’s just as important as the game, studying for the game.”

He dived deeper into the playbook, but the young quarterback still struggled. In the four succeeding games after the outing in Stillwater, he didn’t have another outing with over 200 yards passing. By the end of the season versus Baylor, he was only asked to throw the ball 16 times.

Attention Ewers had given toward scheme cost him proficiency in marksmanship. That was reflected by his 59-of-107 total and his 6.3 yards per attempt average in the Longhorns’ last four games.

“Obviously, towards the middle of the season I wasn’t too focused on footwork,” Ewers said. “That disrupts all the timing on certain throws on timing routes.”

The breakdown in footwork was glaring in the results of his deep passing attempts. According to Pro Football Focus, deep passes of 20-or-more yards comprised 17.7 percent of Ewers’ throws this season. He was 15-of-44 for 363 yards, with three touchdowns and two interceptions. His yards per attempt average was 8.3, a good mark for overall passing but a lot to be desired for downfield throws integral to Sarkisian’s offense.

Sarkisian, himself a college quarterback, said Wednesday he’s seen Ewers grow in the passing game since the regular season ended. He saw the desired progress from Ewers in Texas’ Alamo Bowl practices to where he believes the Longhorn passing attack is operating at a high level.

“I’ve said this all along, the past couple of weeks he’s probably thrown the ball and we’ve executed the passing game better than we have for the past couple of months, quite frankly,” Sarkisian said.

Ewers echoed those thoughts: “I’m really glad we got these bowl practices because we really got to go back to the basics, settle down, and figure everything back out.”

Ewers should have plenty of opportunities to showcase the improvement in the Alamo Bowl. Despite a 10-2 record, the Husky defense isn’t a strongest side of the ball for Washington. The Huskies were No. 59 in defensive SP+, No. 89 in defensive FEI, and No. 91 in passing defense, allowing 241.8 yards per game (coincidentally, Texas was No. 90 in pass defense).

Showing his development, and in a Longhorn win no less, would be the best evidence that the No. 3 overall prospect in the 2021 On3 Consensus has developed into a more accurate marksman for the tougher targets he’ll have to hit in the remainder of his Longhorn career.