Column: Even in Central America, Quinn Ewers’ season is the central question facing the Longhorns

It’s long been established that the Texas brand is one known the world over, including in Coco in the Guanacaste Province of Costa Rica. When sitting in the small beach town where Imperial logos dotted the many family-owned establishments, a question my wife and I fielded in the midst of a conversation with a one-time Austin resident and Army vet revealed what, even 2000 miles away, the obvious hinge of the 2023 season is for the Longhorns.

“Is Quinn going to be able to do it this year?”

Half-a-continent away, a proud American who kept his passport but couldn’t say no to the pura vida lifestyle, vodka cranberries worth a few thousand colones, or the year-round tropical temperatures had one thing on his mind when it came to what his impression of Texas under Steve Sarkisian in year three would be: Quinn Ewers.

For sure, that’s not just what’s on the mind of a misplaced New York Giants fan in Coco. It’s on the mind of people from El Paso to Eylau, Texla to Texline, and even outside the bounds of the Lone Star State. And it has to be considering who’s on Texas’ roster, the quarterback landscape around the country, and the lofty expectations levied upon QB1 on the Forty Acres.

A look at the roster reveals receiver talent few around the country, and fewer still in the Big 12, can match. AD Mitchell, Xavier Worthy, Jordan Whittington, and Isaiah Neyor, plus talented freshmen like Johntay Cook, DeAndre Moore, and Ryan Niblett give Ewers tremendous targets to throw to. Similar applies at the top of the tight end depth chart with Ja’Tavion Sanders.

Go back to the man’s question: is Quinn going to be able to do it this year?

For so long, the impression around Texas has been there’s been no shortage of talent, just historically poor deployment and development. There is no shortage of “but actually” Horn fans could use to contextualize some misses, roster holes, and poor results, but on the macro level Texas has recruited well and had little to show for it.

So in the understanding of an interested observer half the world away, that top-10 talent is just something considered to be always on the roster. It’s Texas. It’s always talented. It’s a constant in his mind.

In 2023, I believe reality is on the brink of matching the perception of those who have long seen the lofty potential of the Longhorn football program but doubted its ability to get there.

The bridge reality needs to cross in order to finally meet perception must be traversed by Ewers with the rest of the team in his stead. He needs to make the talent around him produce using his own talent in order to provide a yes to the original question.

But what is also on the roster, and the subject of another question from the American seeking permanent residency in Costa Rica, is there to add intrigue to Ewers’ campaign.

“Is Arch the real deal?”

Arch Manning, an equally as generational prospect as Ewers per the rankings and “highly-touted” in all senses of the word, brings as much interest to Texas football this season as anyone for the casual observer. He’s a Manning, after all.

While those who closely cover UT and who read Inside Texas know the program’s preference is that Manning makes use of a developmental year while battling with Maalik Murphy to be the backup to a successful Ewers, Manning’s presence, and even the presence of Murphy, adds a not-so-tacit qualification to the original question regarding Ewers.

It’s not so much “is Quinn going to be able to do it this year?”

It’s “is Quinn going to be able to do it this year? Because there are two players chomping at the bit for his snaps.”

To Ewers’ great credit, all signs point to a comfortable cushion between he and his QB cohorts. That cushion is made wider by the fact that he has become the leader of the team from an off-field perspective, something that is more and more likely to make the answer to the original question “yes.”

And if he does do it, it could be quite the year considering what quarterback rooms around the country look like.

Aside from USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye, and I’ll generously include J.J. McCarthy of Michigan considering his incumbent status on a College Football Playoff team, returning known quantities don’t litter the college football landscape.

On BetOnline.ag, only nine teams have +2000 or better odds to win the national title: Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, LSU, Clemson, USC, Texas, and Florida State.

Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, and Clemson, often bemoaned as the “same four teams,” have quarterback situations that possess various measures of uncertainty. Georgia, Alabama, and Ohio State are replacing draft picks at QB with talented though not as proven commodities. Clemson is handing the wheel to a quarterback with 100 total passing attempts in a brand new offense.

What does “do it” actually mean? Is it hit certain statistical bench marks? Is it win games?

We know it’s the right combination of both those things, and if Ewers can “do it,” he’ll ride a wave Texas quarterbacks haven’t needed to prepare for often in the past decade.

Since Colt McCoy‘s eligibility was exhausted at the Rose Bowl, only Sam Ehlinger can claim to have faced the type of expectations a nationally-known Longhorn quarterback tends to take on. After McCoy, David Ash, Case McCoy, Tyrone Swoopes, Jerrod Heard, Shane Buechele, Casey Thompson, and Hudson Card never brought the Longhorns to a level of success to where UT had a “I’m so good, you can hate me but it’s only going to fuel me and make me better to win the game” quarterback aside from Ehlinger, and his grasp on that title was fleeting and amid other things going on in the football program (and the world).

Ewers is about to encounter the upper echelon of expectations, and his offseason rebranding as a quarterback as opposed to a guy with a cool mullet who can throw the football indicates to me he’s ready to face them. He has accepted the likelihood of being judged for how his play looks on the field and not how he looks playing on the field. He realizes one is more important than the other, and has dedicated himself to be ready to face those expectations head on.

If you ask Ewers, he’s been preparing his whole life to meet and exceed them. Expectations aren’t anything new for the Southlake Carroll product, especially after he was lauded as a generational prospect in the 2021 class.

But Texas-sized expectations, ones that have people as far away as Costa Rica intrigued, are different. Over the years since Darrell Royal stepped down, only a handful of Longhorn quarterbacks have truly been able to live up to them. That number dwindles further if focusing on Texas’ time in the Big 12.

Is Quinn going to be able to do it this year? The world wants to know.

At this point, he’s done everything possible to make the answer to that question yes.

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