When it came to evaluating quarterbacks one of Bill Parcells’ areas of concern was about the player’s parents, and specifically the dad.
He would want to know if the quarterback had a “QB Dad.” If so, it would be the equivalent of the soccer mom.
Take that however you want.
By all accounts, the University of Texas has added a five-star quarterback to its roster who comes equipped with NFL skills, a rocket launcher for his right arm, and a QB Dad.
Former Southlake Carroll and Ohio State quarterback Quinn Ewers has pledged his commitment to play for Steve Sarkisian at the University of Texas.
This is a potential career-saving recruit for Sark’, who is coming off a 5-7 first season in Austin where he lost to Kansas at home.
This is also a buyer beware addition. Ewers’ college resume is two snaps for the Buckeyes, and the success-starved UT faithful are only too sure they have their next Vince Young or, at worst, Colt McCoy.
Quinn Ewers could easily bust, but he has changed college football. While what he has done could be a MasterClass in exploiting the new “rules” of big-time college sports, we are still talking about an 18-year-old kid.
But he’s not a kid.
None of them are any more.
The veil of innocence is in the shredder.
Once the NCAA was forced by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his buddies to accept that the student athletes are really employees and can be paid money over the table they all turned pro.
Ewers stands to make more money in a year or two than a lot of University of Texas tenured professors will see in 10 years.
Good for him.
He could easily become a Kardashian, someone who makes seven figures for just being a celebrity.
By taking the money, and the endless perks that come with being a part of big-time college sports teams, they all must accept the offensive stupidity that comes with this job. Because this is a job.
The treatment of NCAA men’s basketball and football players should change the treatment accordingly.
Ewers should be treated like a pro, because he’s acting like it.
When Ewers was still in high school, his first choice was Texas.
But by reclassifying, he could enroll early at Ohio State and take advantage of the new NIL laws, which is not allowed for high school level athletes in Texas.
Ewers enrolled at Ohio State where he reportedly agreed to a $1.4 million contract with GT Marketing. His value went to Mars because he was associated with one of the biggest brands in college football.
Now, after a short visit to Columbus, he’s left to return to his first choice in the University of Texas where he has the potential to make even more money.
For all of its flaws and mediocrity, UT is one of the biggest brands in college football.
Ewers has signed an endorsement deal with something called Holy Kombucha, a Dallas-based beverage company.
Ewers and “his people” have fully capitalized on this new landscape. Even if he’s an ish college quarterback, he’s made enough money to supplement his life for a long time.
Now, here is the problem: That kind of money changes people, and expectations. He better be good.
Not good, but VY good.
College football is littered with stories of the can’t-miss five-star kid that no one realized realized hit his ceiling as a senior in high school.
For every Trevor Lawrence there are far more Mitch Mustains. For every Vince Young there are far more Reggie McNeals.
Because Quinn Ewers is only 18, expectations should be grounded but this is college football, where logic and reason have no place.
These are desperate times in Austin, where “weird” is now accompanied by “crazy.”
Texas is now a volleyball school, because its football team has not been good in a decade. The program that is SEC-bound has lost to Kansas in two of their last five meetings.
The arrival of Quinn Ewers is expected to change this.
He just might do it. Or, he might not.
Either way, by the time his college career is over he will have made millions, offered a lesson to all high school seniors on how to exploit this new system, and help turn all of these college kids into pros.