Time for reality check on Quinn Ewers and Xavier Worthy

The frustrations continued for Quinn Ewers even after Texas finished their regular season by beating Baylor 38-27 — and completing their 2022 revenge tour. Why?

Against Baylor, Ewers was responsible for Baylor scoring 10 points on seemingly ‘rookie mistake’ types of plays such as a fumble that was recovered and returned back for a Baylor touchdown. 

Many wondered why Ewers did not simply throw the ball out of bounds close to where a receiver was? Against Baylor, Ewers did throw 12-16 (75%) for 194 yards, was sacked four times, and ran in a touchdown. A good game.

In his nine game season, Ewers went 141-249 (57%), and 1,808 yards, threw six interceptions, 14 touchdowns, and averaged about 200 yards per game. Compare Ewers to Sam Ehlinger’s nine games his first year in 2017 where he went 158-275 (57%) and 1,915 yards, threw seven interceptions, 11 touchdowns, and averaged 213 yards per game. Compare Ewers to Vince Young in 2003 after a redshirt year and playing 12 games, Young went 84-143 (59%) for 1,155 yards, threw seven interceptions, six touchdowns.

Let’s be honest, there are times Ewers is frustrating to watch because he has shown himself to be a great passer with excellent accuracy, (aka Alabama and Oklahoma). Plus, after Ewers got hurt against Alabama and Hudson Card came in and did fantastic playing great football for the next three and half games.

Now when Ewers makes compounded mistakes, our minds naturally go with, “put Hudson Card back in!”

However, we may need to take a step back for a moment. Here are some facts:

— Texas has a storied past at the quarterback position (McCoy, Young, Ehlinger, Applewhite) 

— Steve Sarkisian and AJ Milwee have a successful past with developing quarterbacks, 

— Quinn Ewers being selected as QB1 means something based on the collective wisdom of veteran coaches

Sarkisian and Milwee have a history of recognizing and developing top QB talent who then go on to have amazing careers in the NFL (Mac Jones, Tua Tagovailoa, Carson Palmer), so it is likely these two coaches may know what they are doing and see something many may not.

In several games, Hudson Card seemed like the natural solution, but we are not Sarkisian or Milwee so, it is not our call, but if it was, Card would have likely played more.

Xavier Worthy had a stellar freshman year in 2021 and was named Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year. His freshman year, Worthy had 62 catches for 981 yards, 12 touchdowns. In 2022 for all 12 games, Worthy caught 53 balls for 676 yards and nine touchdowns, plus had 14 punt returns for 146 yards.

After the Baylor game, Twitter blew up on Worthy removing all content on Instagram related to the Texas Longhorns that continued to fuel the speculation that he was entering the transfer portal. After checking on his Instagram while writing this, Worthy has taken down his Instagram completely.

Why would Worthy enter the portal? One potential answer might be the passes by Quinn Ewers are not on target and, in many cases, even catchable which has tanked his stats. So that Ewers does not get all the blame, coach Sarkisian has said that the receivers need to run their routes better.

So, Worthy is not having as good of a year as he did his freshman. The unverified rumors are saying he wants to go to USC. If true, this makes sense considering Caleb Williams threw for 3,712 yards this season with 65.9% passing, USC went 11-1, and Williams is the likely Heisman Trophy winner.

In addition, Worthy's hometown is Fresno, California which is a little over three hours away from USC and his family can come visit him or he can go home easier.

For Worthy, if he does transfer to USC, it may be part professional and part wanting to be closer to family.

That’s our reality check! #HookEm