Riley Dodge thinks Texas fans should ‘calm down’ about Quinn Ewers

Texas football is building a lot of hype this offseason around a quarterback that essentially has taken no relevant college snaps in game action in the former Ohio State Buckeyes freshman transfer Quinn Ewers. Texas got the quarterback they were looking for in the NCAA Transfer Portal last month when Ewers put his name in early December.

That resulted in second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns seeing off former blue-chip recruit and redshirt junior quarterback Casey Thompson off eventually to the Nebraska Cornhuskers, giving way to Ewers getting the starting job for the taking. There is still sophomore quarterback Hudson Card hanging around on the Forty Acres.

But it looks like this starting job will be there for the taking for Ewers in 2022. Not everyone thinks that Ewers is a lock to have a solid start at Texas in 2022, though.

Ewers’ high school coach at Southlake Carroll, and former North Texas quarterback, Riley Dodge spoke to Horns247 in a podcast interview this week. Dodge doesn’t seem to be too high on the expectations that are being placed on Ewers right away.

Dodge was essentially saying that anyone surrounding the Longhorns program, or talking about expectations for Ewers in 2022, needs to take a step back before thinking he’s going to succeed at a high level right away. Here’s more on what Dodge had to say on this matter.

"If a true freshman — and that’s what Quinn is, because Quinn didn’t pay his senior year in high school. He really hasn’t played any football at all since that state championship game about a year ago about right now. I believe that universities all across America are getting really fired up about true freshman. They’ve got to clam down a bit. It is not in the best interest of your football team if you are starting a true freshman. I don’t care how good he is. You have the Trevor Lawrences of the world and the Tua (Tagovailoa)s of the world and then Caleb Williams came on, but nobody (at Texas) really followed Caleb after the Texas game. Caleb had his freshman moments too."

Southlake Carroll HC Riley Dodge says new Texas football QB Quinn Ewers might have too much hype right now

It’s a fair take for Dodge to say that people need to really think about all of the growth that Ewers has to do before he can truly fulfill his promise at the collegiate level. Granted, he did get a head start on his development by spreading what should’ve been his high school senior year with Ohio State for a semester.

Ewers did get to see what it’s like in fall camp with a blue blood program with some serious talent at the quarterback position. He played behind the likes of Jack Miller and CJ Stroud for a season, and that can’t be taken lightly.

I can personally see both sides to this argument. It is reasonable to see that people shouldn’t put the cart too far out in front of the horse in terms of the expectations for Ewers this year. But Dodge is definitely going to be cautious about the expectations placed on the shoulders of a starting quarterback that he coached up so recently.

Texas does have a lot of talent around Ewers for the 2022 season between the likes of rising sophomore star wide receiver Xavier Worthy, star junior running back Bijan Robinson, and a recent key wideout addition in sophomore Isaiah Neyor. This offense should be one of the most potent in the Big 12 in 2022.