The dream of reaching the National Championship Game was finally shattered. The decisive defeat against the Ohio State Buckeyes marked the end of the Texas Longhorns‘ season in the NCAAF, despite their strong performance throughout the year. Quinn Ewers was highly critical of the play that could have changed the course of the game in the Cotton Bowl.
As the two-minute warning approached in the final quarter of the game, Steve Sarkisian‘s team was trailing by just seven points, only a few yards from the end zone. A missed block by the right tackle, a sack by Jack Sawyer on Ewers, and a subsequent touchdown for Ryan Day’s team sealed the game.
The frustration and anger of the quarterback were evident once the game was over, as that particular play could have tied the game for Texas against Ohio State. In a post-game interview with the media, Ewers made it clear how he felt about what had happened.
“I felt him,” Ewers said of Sawyer. “I started drifting away. I thought I was gonna be able to get the ball off before he got there. Obviously, it’s not like I tried to give them the game. But, I saw jack running with the ball down the sideline, and it sucks, man.
“But, he’s a great player, great individual, great person. Like you said, we were roommates when I was up at Ohio State. So it sucks. It sucks. But Jack’s a good player and he made a great play.”
Sarkisian’s message to Ewers
The relationship between Quinn Ewers and Steve Sarkisian has spanned about three years at Texas, and according to the QB himself, although not officially, his intention is to leave for the NFL. If that happens, taking over the reins of the team next year would be none other than Arch Manning.
After the game, where the Longhorns were ultimately defeated in the Cotton Bowl, the coach was asked by the press about his experience working alongside Ewers all this time.
“I’m super proud of Quinn. He’s taught me a lot, probably unknowingly to him, because what he went through every year dealing with injury, what he goes through where I don’t know if he’d ever live up to the standards of what everybody thinks he’s supposed to be. But at the end of the day, all he did was show up every day and work and be a great leader and be a great teammate. And that’s a real credit to him because human nature, in this day and age, is to look at Twitter, to look at Instagram, to look at social media and articles written and fan boards and whatever else.
“And you can ride that emotional roller coaster of whatever you think public opinion could be, and that could be the opinion of one or a hundred or whatever,” the HC stated.