Four months isn't a long time. But that won't stop Quinn Ewers' four months in Columbus from being an overarching storyline of the 2025 Cotton Bowl, which will pit No. 8-seed Ohio State against (5) Texas in the semifinals of the College Football Playoffs.
Ewers, if you aren't aware by now, reclassified from the 2022 class to the 2021 class in August of 2021 to enroll at Ohio State.
He had an uneventful few months on the field, but, in many ways, became a transformational trendsetter in the NIL space with the move. Ahead of the Cotton Bowl, let's revisit Ewers' time in Columbus and what led to that brief marriage in the first place.
A massive flip
Ewers was a foundational recruiting win for Tom Herman's Texas staff when he committed on Aug. 14, 2020. Ewers ranked as the No. 1 player in the country in the 2022 class, committing to the school he grew up rooting for. Ewers might as well have been a mulleted savior in the minds of many Longhorn fans.
But that commitment lasted only a few months as Ewers decommitted from Texas on Oct. 28 on the heels of an underwhelming 3-2 start by the Longhorns, which put Herman squarely on the hot seat.
Ewers committed to Ohio State a few weeks later, a pledge that stuck for almost a year despite aggressive pushes from teams all over the country, including eventual Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian; Texas fired Herman following the 2020 season.
An NIL-motivated reclassification
What if I told you Kombucha is the reason the No. 1 player in the country skipped his senior season of high school football?
If there's ever a "30 for 30" on the NIL era, that could easily be the opener, because Ewers' reclassification from the 2022 to 2021 class was the first real bombshell of the NIL landscape. Ewers would have liked to play his senior year of high school football for Texas power Southlake Carroll High School, but the University Interscholastic School League (the UIL) -- the organization that oversees high school sports in Texas -- and a state law prevented Ewers and any other Lone Star State public school athletes from making money off their name, image and likeness.
So, with a seven-figure endorsement offer on the table from Holy Kombucha, Ewers opted to skip his senior year all together and enroll a year early in Columbus. He made the decision in August and arrived promptly in Columbus, where he was several legs behind the QB battle to replace Justin Fields. Ohio State's coaching staff did not quite push Ewers to make the decision: Not only did it crush the valuable reps he could have gotten as a high school senior, but it also created a bottleneck in its quarterback room (Kyle McCord was in Ewers' class) and also put into motion an accelerated timeline for Ewers to either stay or transfer, as would play out a few months later.
"It was strange how it all shook out," Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said last week in his pre-Cotton Bowl press conference. "He decided to come, really, in the middle of preseason camp for us. And so, it was a little bit strange. But again, with college football, you look to adapt the best you can."
At the time, 20 states nationally had laws in place that allowed high school athletes to capitalize on their NIL. Now, 40 states do so in a limited or outright fashion. Texas still prohibits it, however.
An uneventful four months
Ewers enrolled in August and played a total of two snaps, both against Michigan State, his freshman year. He did not throw a pass, largely regulated to fourth-string duty behind C.J. Stroud, Kyle McCord and Jack Miller. Ewers didn't even travel to every Ohio State away game during the 2021 season as travel rosters are limited.
"I learned a lot while I was there under coach (Ryan) Day and then CJ (Stroud), and just that whole room was awesome to be around, and super thankful for that time that I got to spend there," Ewers said this week. "I learned a whole lot. So, I don't regret any decision I made on going or anything like that. But the main reason I went was, I felt like I had a great relationship with the coaching staff, and you know, they were winning a lot of games, and I wanted to go be a part of something like that."
Why Ewers left Ohio State
Ewers opted to enter the transfer portal on Dec. 3, 2021, shortly after the completion of Ohio State's regular season. He ended up transferring to Texas nine days later, picking the Longhorns over Texas Tech and TCU.
As for why Ewers departed Columbus, it's a simple calculation -- an immediate path to the field.
Stroud broke out as one of the top quarterbacks in the country during the 2020 season, and he had at least one more year to play in 2021. Ewers entered the portal seeking the opportunity to start.
"C.J. really had a great season that season, and (Quinn) decided he really wanted to play," Day said. "It was disappointing for us, but we certainly understood.
Had Ewers stayed in his original 2022 recruiting class and signed with Ohio State, he likely would have been Ohio State's starter in the 2023 season, over McCord, once Stroud left. Instead, he won Texas' starting job in 2022 as Stroud was entering his second season as the Buckeyes' starter.
Now for the reunion
The Buckeye in Ewers hasn't quite left him. Earlier this season ahead of Texas' game against Michigan, Ewers referred to the Wolverines as "The Team Up North," a reference to how Ohio State talks about its rival.
"I think it's funny, to be honest with you," his dad, Curtis Ewers, told CBS earlier this year. "It's the 'Team Up North' to Quinn. There's no doubt about it. But he kind of says it tongue-in-cheek, right?"
There are also plenty of familiar faces in Columbus for Ewers beyond the Buckeyes coaching staff. In fact, many of the players defending him Saturday were part of Ohio State's 2021 class with Ewers. That group includes star defensive ends JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer, standout DT Tyleik Williams, starting safety Jordan Hancock and starting cornerback Denzel Burke.
Really, the 2021 class is the foundation of Ohio State's 2024 run, and there's a great irony in the fact that one of the two quarterbacks from that class -- the other being Kyle McCord -- is perhaps the biggest hurdle in their way for a national championship.
MORE: Quinn Ewers needed two throws to change his career narrative
