Spring Storyline: Quinn Ewers and the need to mesh with new receivers
The pass-catching corps of Adonai Mitchell, Xavier Worthy, Jordan Whittington, Ja’Tavion Sanders, and even Jonathon Brooks played a key role in Quinn Ewers tallying 3479 yards on 272-of-394 passing (69%) with 22 touchdowns and six interceptions in 2023. But those players, who Ewers targeted 294 times, are all off to the NFL.
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Once their departures were made official and the dust had settled on signing day, there were only seven scholarship receivers on the roster and none had been at Texas longer than a year.
“We can’t go into every season, and (have) me sitting here in August telling you we’re a young football team,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said in February. “We’ve got to have some experience. We’ve got to have some depth here.”
So Sarkisian added Isaiah Bond, Matthew Golden, and Silas Bolden to his receiver corps. Despite comments from uninformed fans about “the rich getting richer,” those transfer additions were critical because of the roster situation.
Ewers knows now who he’s going to be throwing to for what’s likely to be his third and final season in Austin. For Texas to continue to remain among national championship contenders ahead of the program’s first season in the SEC, Ewers and his mostly-new receiving targets will have to mesh and mesh quickly in order to present a significant threat to opposing defenses. That’s a process that will shift into gear once helmets and pads are put on for spring practices.
It’s not like Ewers hasn’t done this before in his career. After starting his college football career in an Ohio State quarterback room that featured C.J. Stroud at the top and Kyle McCord as the backup, Ewers transferred to Texas to battle with Hudson Card for Sarkisian’s second campaign leading the Longhorns in 2022.
Ewers had to learn the nuances of new targets like Worthy, Sanders, Whittington, Gunnar Helm, and others. It was an up-and-down season, especially as it pertained to connecting with Worthy, and Ewers completed just 58 percent of his passes.
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As Ewers developed his own game, so too did his connection with his wideouts ahead of the 2023 season. More and more, he completed passes to Worthy deep. Whittington and Sanders became lethal in the intermediate passing game. He increased his yards per attempt by a full 1.4 yards and threw only six interceptions even though he attempted 98 more passes in 2023 than in 2022.
Critically, there was a transfer in Mitchell that Ewers had to learn how to throw to. Whether it was through informal passing sessions throughout the spring and summer, or the 15 official practices in March and April of 2023, Ewers and Mitchell had to build a connection. They did, with Mitchell eventually leading the team in touchdown receptions and making plays when it mattered most against Alabama, Houston, TCU, Oklahoma State, and Washington.
That gives Texas good reason to believe Ewers can build with his newfound corps, plus returners like Johntay Cook, DeAndre Moore, and Ryan Niblett — three players he should already have a semblance of a connection with.
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Fifteen spring practices presents plenty of opportunities for Ewers to build connections with returning receivers and ones going through their first set of drills in Austin. To maintain a passing game of the quality Sarkisian prefers, Ewers will have to take advantage of every one.
