NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Quinn Ewers took the final snap Saturday for the final knee to the turf of a 27-24 Texas win over Vanderbilt and celebrated as one with national championship hopes does after a close win over Vanderbilt — as quickly and quietly as possible.
Ewers shook a few hands and shared a few pleasantries, in particular with Vandy’s counterpart and Nashville sporting sensation Diego Pavia, then got off the FirstBank Stadium field. Behind him, as he jogged toward the locker room, the stands reminded him of the difference at hand.
A full, hearty Vanderbilt student section sang the school’s alma mater with Commodores players and coaches, which is no small thing for that program, but they made up just a slice of the east side of the stadium. The rest was burnt orange, belting out the Texas fight song, drowning out the home fans.
That happens at Vanderbilt. Quality wins for opponents don’t, not in several years. But that’s what this was. And Ewers was the best part about it. Yes, to be clear: Texas took a step in a three-point win at Vanderbilt, while Ewers took a step even with Vanderbilt intercepting two of his passes. That’s how weird this game was and this season is.
“I think it’s just really a credit to him, even coming after last week’s game,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said of Ewers, whose two picks were tipped and who was 27-for-35 for 288 yards and two touchdowns otherwise. “When doubt creeps into our mind, that’s a killer. And I didn’t think there was a sliver of doubt in his mind.”
Sarkisian, it could be argued, supplied conditions for doubt — internally and externally — when he sat Ewers late in the second half of last week’s sobering, welcome-to-the-SEC, 30-15 home loss to Georgia. Letting a quarterback sit and clear his head can be an effective strategy at times, but that’s a harder sell when his backup is the most popular person in Texas.
And what if Arch Manning hadn’t looked like the young, not-ready-for-prime-time quarterback he still is, making the quick switch back to Ewers obvious? We’ll never know. The most Manning made his presence known Saturday was via No. 16 jerseys worn by some Texas fans. The controversy, for now, has quieted.
If it comes back, that probably means Texas is toast. Ewers, who has stepped up over and over again in huge games, was always the one with the best chance to lead this team to a national championship. And that hope remains viable — a punch in the mouth from Georgia notwithstanding.
It’s a week off, Florida, then at Arkansas and Kentucky ahead for No. 5 Texas (7-1, 3-1), before Texageddon or whatever you want to call the first meeting between the Horns and Aggies in 13 years.
Put ’em up 🤘⬆️ pic.twitter.com/BzMQHbu04h
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) October 27, 2024
Texas needs to get tougher from Georgia, and it needs to learn from some mistakes made in Nashville as well. This did not have to come down to a late Pavia touchdown pass to force an onside kick. It could have been much more comfortable, but for a whopping 10 Texas penalties for 108 yards — several wiping out significant gains — and too many successful Vanderbilt pressures, resulting in four sacks.
Also, No. 25 Vanderbilt (5-2, 2-2) was never going to stop fighting, and the only thing that would suggest otherwise is the word on the front of the Commodores jerseys. This team is not that history.
But the Ewers picks were just bad luck. After the first one, Pavia made Texas pay right away, getting outside the Longhorns’ defense and electrifying the home fans (about 40 percent of the crowd?) with an 18-yard sprint to the end zone to open the scoring. A tipped interception and dazzling Pavia plays highlighted a shocker over then-No. 1 Alabama three weeks earlier, and that feeling was in the air again.
So Ewers took the Longhorns 75 yards for the tying score, capping it by ripping one to Matthew Golden on an out cut. Then he took the Longhorns 49 yards for the go-ahead score, a pretty 27-yard loft to DeAndre Moore Jr., with pressure in his face. They wouldn’t trail again. And Ewers wouldn’t throw another incompletion until it was 21-7 and he had connected on 17 in a row.
Texas needs to get better in the last month to be what it wants to be. It doesn’t need much more than it got Saturday from Ewers, who looks like he’s finally past the oblique injury that cost him two games and like he’s quickly past whatever last week could have done to him.
“It was normal for us,” Moore, who had 97 yards and two touchdowns receiving, said of the perceived Ewers bounce-back.
“If he plays like that the rest of the year we’re gonna be OK — we’re gonna be just fine,” Sarkisian said.
“It’s definitely a good feeling,” Ewers said. “You get to gain that confidence back. Definitely nice coming off what happened last week.”
“What happened” can be defined in different ways, at least when it comes to the quarterback shuffle, but not when it comes to Georgia hammering Texas physically. To win a hypothetical rematch, the Longhorns would need to counter with better execution, starting with Ewers.
This was a performance to build toward that, after a week in which 247Sports briefly and inaccurately reported that Ewers was going to sit out the rest of the season to prepare for the NFL Draft. (247Sports claimed its account was hacked.)
“It was weird,” Ewers said of the report, and it’s not alone.
Texas just won by three points at Vanderbilt, and that counts as a quality win in college football in 2024. This wasn’t one to celebrate, but it wasn’t one to complain about either.
(Photo: Carly Mackler / Getty Images)
