Reason No. 1 why Texas will be better in 2024 than 2023: Third-year Quinn Ewers
For every Texas narrative it seems there’s a counter-narrative. In response to Texas’ resurgence on the national stage I’ve seen a fair amount of ‘yeah, but, it was just one year and they lost a lot.’ Both responses are as equally true as they are meaningless to the overall Texas trend-line. Newsflash: Good teams lose players every year. Great programs replace them.
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Yes, there is a lot of turnover in the college game through natural attrition, transfers, and NFL departures. That means there’s always some measure of projection involved when assessing teams year-over-year, but how much projection is what truly matters. Having a returning starting quarterback typically removes a lot of projection, or, the projection that does remain is to the upside.
Texas has much more in its favor this year than Quinn Ewers returning but since that’s probably the largest factor in why Texas will be better, let’s start the series there.
Third-year Quinn Ewers
Quarterback is the most important position in sports and also one of the most cerebral. Experience is often rewarded, especially when a player is as talented as Ewers. He can make all the throws, especially when he ‘sees it’. By all accounts, Ewers is seeing it more clearly than ever. Given his own growth and the amount of weapons he has to work with, he is poised to light it up this season.
It gets much deeper than Ewers’ natural progression as a player, though.
The Joystick
Steve Sarkisian has proven he can work wonders with an experienced quarterback. That experience lends itself to Sark controlling the game from his headset. Ewers as the proverbial joystick a la a more physically gifted Mac Jones is a realistic hope.
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This is not a knock on the player, it’s a compliment to coaching, development, and the ability to scheme up mismatches. And, if Ewers has been developed as well as we think, then he’ll have more latitude to shake off the call from the sideline and take the play in a different direction based on what the defense shows him.
Force-multiplier
The virtuous cycle on offense created by good quarterback play is pretty obvious but putting up a lot of points on the board also allows the defense to play more aggressively, which in turn often helps the offense put even more points on the board.
Good quarterback play makes skill talent better and vice versa. It makes it easier to run the ball because the threat of the big play over the top is ever-present.
This isn’t the only force-multiplier for Texas this year.
Nick Saban sums it up
Last week during SEC Media Days, Nick Saban encapsulated a couple of these points with one comment.
“I’ll say what I’ve said before, quarterback is the hardest position to play if you don’t have good players around you. He [Ewers] has good players around him and he is a good player. He understands the offense and the system is good. Playing against Sark, and this is me as a defensive coach talking about it, is the hardest preparation we had all year long. Aaight, because multiple, bunch sets, squeeze sets, unbalanced line, motions, adjustments, and they now how to apply that to what you do and how you play and how to put the right player in the right place to make a big play. He did a phenomenal job for us when he was our offensive coordinator and the hardest preparation we had all season long, defensively, early in the year when we played them last year.”
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Take Saban at his word, he has a ‘bunch’ of experience in this department.
