Could Quinn Ewers’ turnover issues give Card an edge in QB battle?

Once fall camp begins, all eyes will return to the looming quarterback battle for second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program as this staff will look to name a starter for Week 1. Texas is seeing rising junior Hudson Card and the former Ohio State Buckeyes freshman transfer Quinn Ewers duke it out for the starting quarterback job this fall.

Sark and the Longhorns staff didn’t name a starting quarterback during spring camp. And they’re definitely not going to name a starter during the summer.

That will leave likely the early-to-middle stages of fall camp as the time to watch for Sark and the Longhorns staff to announce the starting quarterback for Week 1 at home against Louisiana-Monroe.

Moreover, most Longhorns fans and those around the college football media landscape feel that there is already a heavy favorite to win the starting job. Most believe that Ewers is destined to be the starting quarterback in Week 1 against Louisiana-Monroe almost no matter what.

But there are some dissenting opinions toward this thought entering the summer. Some do believe that both Ewers and Card will have a shot at making a big impression on the coaching staff in Week 1, thus opening the door to the competition playing out until Week 2 against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

One of the reasons for this seems to be that Ewers could still have some turnover issues he is working through this fall. According to a 247Sports report on May 26, one area that Card is leading Ewers is in the turnover management department.

Will turnover issues for Quinn Ewers give Hudson Card an edge in the Texas football QB competition?

Ewers apparently has a lot more turnovers under his belt since the start of spring camp than Card. And that is one part of Ewers’ game that the coaching staff is obviously monitoring closely as we start to approach fall camp in the next couple of months.

So, this leads to the question, how reasonable is it to figure that Card could have an edge over Ewers in a legitimate way in this quarterback competition?

While it is plausible that Sark and the Longhorns staff might consider any turnover issues Ewers is having this offseason in the equation of how they’re going to name a starting quarterback this fall, it doesn’t seem like the biggest factor. Ewers is a young quarterback Sark knows that he’s going to need to be patient to develop his vision and timing.

Ewers is going to make mistakes, there’s no way around that. The goal is to reduce the number of costly mistakes he’s making in the early phases of this coming season. Sark will give him some easier reads to get him in rhythm early in games. And Ewers will definitely have a plethora of skill position weapons to lean on this season between the likes of running back Bijan Robinson and wideouts like Xavier Worthy and Jordan Whittington.

However, if Ewers is tossing picks left and right early this fall, that is really the only way I see Sark reconsidering this decision. There is a point when coughing up turnovers can get to Ewers’ head and stall his development. But you’d have to figure that he would at least need to have six or seven picks under his belt by the end of Week 2 for Sark to reach the point of considering putting Card in for Ewers early this fall.

This leads me to the conclusion that the Longhorns are going to probably favor Ewers in the quarterback competition over Card this fall.

Turnovers will definitely be an emphasized area of improvement for Ewers in the months ahead, but we knew that before spring ball concluded last month. This is not really new information.

One more point to add here is how this topic of conversation goes to show that it is important for Texas to have some starting experience in the quarterback room with Card. In a situation where Ewers is faltering in a big way or isn’t able to stay healthy, having Card in this quarterback room is extremely valuable. Texas doesn’t have much of any relevant experience in the quarterback room outside of Card.

All in all, it still feels like Ewers is trending to be the starting quarterback for the Longhorns in Week 1. I still think that Texas wouldn’t go out and get Ewers out of the portal and get him some first-team reps in spring camp like they did without planning on him being the starter early this coming season.

Texas finished up last season with a record of 5-7 (3-6 Big 12), missing out on bowl season for the first time since 2016. Sark, Ewers, and the Longhorns are set to open up the regular season on Sep. 3 at home against Louisiana-Monroe, with the kickoff time now set for 7 p.m. CT.