Former NFL quarterback Jeff Christensen, trainer to NFL stars like Patrick Mahomes, figures he's got the last 120 throws on tape from Quinn Ewers' mulleted past.
Shortly after the 2022 season ended, Christensen, who's worked with Ewers since high school, did a throwing session with the former five-star QB.
Ewers' redshirt freshman season -- really, what should have been his true freshman campaign, given he reclassified out of high school -- went OK. He threw for 1,808 yards and 14 touchdowns and helped Texas jump from 5-7 to 8-5. It felt like he left plenty on the table, though. The player once billed as a generational QB prospect completed just 56.6% of his passes with a touchdown-to-interception ratio just a shade over 2-to-1 during a season that saw him miss several games due to a painful shoulder injury. The same player who threw four touchdowns in a 49-0 thrashing of Oklahoma could, a week later, toss three interceptions and complete 38.7% of his passes on a windy day on the road at Oklahoma State
Ewers, who will lead Texas against No. 10 Michigan on Saturday in Ann Arbor (12 p.m. ET, FOX), had conversations with his family and the Texas coaching staff after the 2022 season ended in an Alamo Bowl loss to Washington. What could he do to improve?
That training session felt like the first time Christensen saw a new version of Ewers. It's when he thinks everything clicked.
"Since that day he's done nothing but get better in leaps and bounds, step by step," Christensen said.
When that workout ended, Ewers told Christensen of an upcoming change.
Around 9:30 a.m. the following day, Ewers shaved off his mullet. His signature hairstyle, a look that one expert estimated was worth $1 million in NIL money, was gone. It was symbolic, really. The mullet has long been coined to signify "business in the front, party in the back".
This new version of Ewers was all business.
"Every player gets to that point of understanding facts versus perception," Christensen said. "Him being a very, very good, kind, thoughtful, good-hearted kid understood this isn't about my hair. But the perception, illusion that some get might think -- and I'm not speaking for him -- is that I'm not taking this serious. Ultimately, my job is leadership of people and being accurate. They're not paying me for my physical appearance. They're paying me to lead and win close games and be as good as I can be. If I'm doing anything that gives anybody an illusion of me not being serious, I probably need to stop that."
Asked about that practice and what Christensen said, Ewers laughed. He doesn't remember the specific day or conversation but generally agreed with the assessment.
"It was time to let that go," Ewers said. "It was kind of like a restart."
A signature statement
The blond, flowing locks trickling out of the back of Ewers' helmet weren't weighing him down while making throws. It wasn't costing him NIL dollars. It was, however, a symbolic obstacle for where Ewers wants to go.
The mullet, a look that was everywhere in the early 2020s as chart-toppin', hell-raisin' Morgan Wallen ascended the country music scene, is of course just a haircut. But it's also a statement. Maybe one of indifference, maybe one of irreverence. They say not to judge a book by its cover, but it says something that Ewers and his camp realized the mullet needed to go.
The mullet was Ewers' look throughout high school, where he carried the pressure that comes with being a teenage phenom. As a sophomore, 247Sports named him the No. 1 overall high school prospect in the Class of 2022. That pressure only intensified when he blazed a new trail by skipping his senior year of high school to cash in on millions in NIL money at Ohio State. Ewers was roundly criticized for leaving Texas at the time, but now 39 of 50 states allow high school athletes to earn NIL in some form; his inability to do so in Texas is the only reason he left early. (Ewers transferred after one season at Ohio State and committed to Texas, who he had been committed to previously as a high school prospect).
Ewers' hair was there with him for every step of that early success. When he cut it, it was a symbol of his own internal growth. His commitment to go from teenage phenom to one of college football's best. His family knew the change would prove symbolic, especially in a place like Austin where QB1 is under a constant microscope.
"I think there were some conversations he had -- Jeff is not wrong -- when you're the quarterback at the University of Texas, and I think Sarkisian said something to this effect, your reputation precedes you a little bit," Quinn's dad, Curtis Ewers said. "Regardless of how you play the position or who you are as a teammate, the perception does have an impact in ways you may or may not be able to control."
In some ways, the hair distracted from who Ewers is when you get a chance to speak with him: An introspective, almost introverted one-time teenage superstar who's long dealt with the pressures of fame and the critical eye that comes with it.
'It's Quinn growing up'
When Curtis Ewers thinks back on the 2022-23 offseason of change, he said the improvements were simple -- but not limited to a haircut.
"If you were going to boil it down to one or two things, it's Quinn growing up," Curtis said. "He's not a finished product. Everybody matures and evolves in their own way, and I think it was one of those times it was noticeable."
A critical element of that was his fitness. Ewers drastically changed his diet, dropping from a listed 207 pounds to 195 ahead of the 2023 season. He took off bad weight and added back muscle, playing lighter than he had since high school in an effort to bring back some of the fluid mobility that had made him such an intriguing prospect.
"It was (about changing) just the way my body felt," Ewers told The Athletic. "I didn't feel healthy."
It worked. Ewers averaged 5.9 yards per rush in 2023, per PFF, after just 3.1 yards per carry the year. before.
Ewers also refocused on his footwork and mechanics. No, those weren't broken. Ewers boasts rare arm talent, and scrapping his fundamentals would have been an ill-gotten idea. But Christensen, among others, helped refine how Ewers executed.
The results were immediate. Ewers' completion percentage jumped to 70.7%, and his yards per attempt moved from 7.3 to nine. Texas felt the benefit as well, jumping from 8-4 to 11-2. He led the Longhorns to their first conference title since 2009 and the program's first-ever College Football Playoff appearance.
Quinn Ewers' Passing Stats at Texas
| Year | CMP | ATT | CMP% | YDS | AVG | TD | INT | LNG | RTG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 272 | 394 | 69.0 | 3,479 | 8.8 | 22 | 6 | 73 | 158.6 |
| 2023 | 172 | 296 | 58.1 | 2,177 | 7.4 | 15 | 6 | 49 | 132.6 |
Another business decision
Fast foward to this past offseason, when Ewers needed to make a different kind of choice: Stay in college or enter the NFL Draft?
Just like his decision from the year before, Ewers' choice to come back to Texas for a third year as the Longhorns' starter came down to business.
"There is a line of demarcation for guys who really have success in the league, and obviously there are some guys that have rare accounts of it not being this way, but there is a line, kind of 25, 25 starts," Ewers said at SEC Media Days.
When the NFL changed its collective bargaining agreement in 2011, it limited the number of hours teams can practice and spend in team meetings. That means fewer reps and fewer opportunities for young players to develop. That's especially detrimental to highly drafted QBs, who are often forced onto the field quickly. Largely gone are the days an Aaron Rodgers or even a Jordan Love can sit for a few seasons before being thrust into action; three of the five healthy first-round QBs from the 2024 draft will start for their teams Week 1.
That's when college experience comes into play.
A sampling of collegiate snaps from notable first-round NFL picks
| Player | Starts |
|---|---|
| C.J. Stroud | 25 |
| Trey Lance | 17 |
| Justin Fields | 22 |
| Joe Burrow | 29 |
| Justin Herbert | 42 |
| Sam Darnold | 24 |
| Mitch Trubisky | 13 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 29 |
| Jared Goff | 37 |
| Carson Wentz | 24 |
Every story and situation is different — several QBs, like Zach Wilson (28 starts), run counter to that college experience theory — but that's a data point Ewers considered strongly when making his NFL Draft decision.
He'd only started 22 games by the end of the 2023 season. The extra reps he'd gain at Texas and his long-term goals almost demanded that he return.
"Quinn was very receptive to maintaining his goal, which was to be a successful NFL quarterback, not just get there," Curtis Ewers said. "It was a very mature approach he took."
Endorsed on merit, not mullet
Ewers might lack his once-distinctive mullet. But he's no less marketable now than he was two years ago. In fact, the larger public probably sees him more often than ever. Ewers is a cover athlete for the popular video game "EA Sports NCAA 25." He's a featured member of Dr. Pepper's national "Fansville" campaign. He's also in ads for Hulu and Athletic Brewing Company, which makes non-alcoholic beer.
Not that some advertisers didn't want him to keep what was once dubbed a "million-dollar mullet."
"There were some marketing opportunities that wanted him to keep (the hair), frankly," Curtis Ewers said. "I think it's another example of Quinn not being concerned about the marketing opportunities and taking full advantage of those. He turns down nine out of 10 that are offered to him."
As for the 2024 season, one which comes with major expectations for the No. 3 Longhorns, the early returns are already quite positive. Ewers completed 74.1% of his passes in Texas' season-opening win over Colorado State.
That's an accuracy jump Christensen expects to be a preview for the rest of the year.
"I have a really good feeling we now know that this year it's going to happen (again)," Christensen said.
'That Team Up North'
The biggest test, at least early in the season, will be this week against Michigan. The Wolverines are the defending national champions and have a defense littered with potential first-round picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. It's also Ewers' first opportunity to start against Michigan after beginning his career at Ohio State.
Ewers never saw the field for the Buckeyes, but he brought some popular Ohio State vernacular back with him to the Lone Star State. He drew headlines at SEC Media Days when he referred to Michigan as the "Team Up North," a longtime popular slang term for Buckeyes fans and players who refuse to name the state or Wolverines program by name. It was a quip that drew a few chuckles.
"I think it's funny, to be honest with you," Curtis Ewers said. "It's the 'Team Up North' to Quinn. There's no doubt about it. But he kind of says it tongue-in-cheek, right?"
The balmy day in Dallas was the perfect time for Ewers to flash his dry sense of humor. Saturday in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the other hand, is an opportunity for the Texas quarterback to show the other side of himself.
The business side.