SEC Media Days Storylines: Quinn Ewers has a host of wideouts he must build rapport with
Ahead of the 2023 season, Quinn Ewers had one new receiver in Adonai Mitchell to get accustomed to. Ewers already had familiarity with Xavier Worthy and Jordan Whittington entering the year, so learning the nuances of the talented Georgia transfer’s game was an accomplishable goal for Ewers before his second season at the helm of the Longhorn offense.
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That offseason gave Ewers plenty of reps and a strong foundation for what turned out to be a successful 2023 campaign. But every one of those aforementioned pass-catchers are now in the NFL. Ahead of 2024, the Longhorns’ first season in the SEC, Ewers will need to get acclimated with an offense that features a number of wide receivers who played for other programs last year plus some who his experience with may be limited in comparison to the players he helped Texas reach great heights with in 2023.
The top group of receivers in 2024 will likely feature…
- One true freshman: Ryan Wingo
- Two returners: Johntay Cook, DeAndre Moore Jr.
- Three transfers: Isaiah Bond, Matthew Golden, and Silas Bolden
Let’s say Steve Sarkisian and Chris Jackson lean on the experience of the transfers for most of the output in the 2024 season. That would mean Ewers would have to continue to learn the ins and outs of the skill sets of Bond, Golden, and Bolden ahead of Texas’ all-important debut season in the SEC.
That’s not to say it’s an impossible task. Let’s look to the distribution of targets (per Pro Football Focus), receptions, and yardage among Longhorns receivers last year…
- Xavier Worthy: 119 targets, 75 receptions, 1014 yards
- Adonai Mitchell: 86 targets, 55 receptions, 845 yards
- Jordan Whittington: 55 targets, 42 receptions, 505 yards
- TOTAL: 260 targets, 172 receptions, 2364 yards
Here’s how the transfers fared in 2023 in comparison. Bond and Bolden led their team in targets while Golden was third.
- Isaiah Bond (Alabama): 75 targets, 48 receptions, 668 yards
- Matthew Golden (Houston): 63 targets, 38 receptions, 404 yards
- Silas Bolden (Oregon State): 86 targets, 54 receptions, 746 yards
- TOTAL: 224 targets, 140 receptions, 1818 yards
Quarterbacks of varying quality (Jalen Milroe, Donovan Smith, and DJ Uiagalelei, respectively) had a lot to do with those comparatively meager totals compared to the pass-catchers that worked with Ewers last season. There’s no doubt Milroe, Smith, and Uiagalelei have their respective strengths, but no member of that trio is thought to be the type of passer Ewers is.
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All that said, Ewers still has to build chemistry with Bond, Golden, and Bolden in addition to learning how Cook, Moore, and Wingo like to catch footballs. Every coach likes to say they are battling time, but that applies to quarterbacks and transfer receivers in the portal era as well.
Ewers has experience throwing to Bond and Golden from 14 spring practices, plus reps banked via voluntary workouts or supervised summer activities. From insider reports on how Bolden has fared so far in his Texas tenure, the Longhorns’ starter has already crafted a connection with the Oregon State transfer as well.
Learning the preferences of three receivers is a bigger challenge than learning the preferences of one wideout. Luckily for Ewers, none of the three additions arrive at Texas coming off of seasons with Worthy-like target numbers or workloads. Their expectations are to get the ball of course, just as it is for any receiver, but they probably aren’t thinking they’ll be looked to 119 times.
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For Ewers, he has the experience of gaining an understanding of Mitchell’s game last year to lean on. Doing it on a larger scale is a challenge, but it’s one lesser quarterbacks have succeeded in completing. If he does it, the Longhorn offense is due for big things in 2024.
