Ewers cites lack of title contention as reason for leaving Texas football

Last fall, a true nightmare scenario struck for the 2022 Texas football recruiting class when the elite five-star Southlake Carroll pro-style quarterback Quinn Ewers decommitted. What ensued in the next 24 was the near-complete destruction of what looked to be a brewing elite 2022 class. Texas and former head coach Tom Herman lost a commitment from Ewers and four-star Lancaster wide receiver Phaizon Wilson in the span of just a few hours.

And it looked like the Longhorns’ lone remaining commitment at the time in the 2022 class, four-star Memorial cornerback Jaylon Guilbeau might re-open his recruitment too. But Guilbeau wound up sticking around as the sole commit in the Longhorns 2022 class, despite all the turmoil happening on the recruiting trail for the program at the time.

Texas would wind up recovering from that tough stretch last fall for their 2022 class, but it took the hiring of new head coach Steve Sarkisian to make that happen. Before Texas hired Sark to replace Herman as head coach, fans on the Forty Acres had to witness Ewers essentially flip his commitment to join head coach Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

This was the second time in a span of just a few recruiting cycles that the Longhorns lost what seemed like a slam dunk of a five-star skill position prospect in-state to Ohio State. The other happened with former five-star wide receiver recruit and Austin, TX, native Garrett Wilson.

What 5-Star QB Quinn Ewers had to say about leaving Texas football, and the entire state for the Buckeyes?

In a recent interview with 247Sports, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex-area native opened up on his recruitment and why he left Texas for Ohio State. He not only cited why he left the Longhorns but the entire state of Texas and why elite prospects keep going out-of-state.

He mentioned a lack of national contenders, even though he did say that the Texas A&M Aggies came “close” to reaching that status last fall. That’s not good to hear for Longhorns fans.

Nonetheless, here’s more on what he had to say on the matter in this 247Sports interview.

"“Probably because a Texas team hasn’t been in the running for a national championship in a little while. And I don’t know about other guys, but like me I just, I just want to compete at the highest, highest level. Obviously, one day they will get back there and it’ll be great. But right now, it’s just, I’m just tired seeing that happen. Obviously, Texas A&M was really close last year.”"

Texas did recover nicely from losing the commitment of Ewers to the Buckeyes last year. Sark got a big-time commitment from the uber-talented and potent four-star Junipero Serra pro-style quarterback Maalik Murphy back in February.

Now that Sark and the Longhorns have the quarterback they need to build around in the 2022 class, they can keep the focus on pursuing the elite 2023 five-star Isidore Newman pro-style signal caller Arch Manning. Texas should be one of the top schools in contention to land a commitment from Manning early in his recruitment.

Despite losing the commitment of the nation’s top-ranked 2022 high school prospect last fall, Texas still has a top 10 ranked class in the nation. They currently hold eight commits in the 2022 class, with the highest-rated being four-star Klein Cain running back Jaydon Blue.