One of the biggest NFL Draft storylines was Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers falling to the seventh round, landing with the Miami Dolphins. While most didn’t project the former Longhorns signal caller in the first, most believed he’d come off the board on Day 2, if not early on Day 3. That wasn’t the case. However, there are worse landing spots than Miami, and Ewers will have an opportunity to prove everyone that doubted him wrong.
On Monday, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke to media ahead of his address at the Touchdown Club of Houston. He backed his quarterback and provided some silver lining to the situation.
“I think about a lot of the people that come through this program over the last four years that have impacted the growth and trajectory of our program, and he’s right there near the top, if not at the top of the impact that he’s had, not only on the field but off the field,” Sarkisian said. “His ability to help recruit other players come be part of our program. I think he was one of the first guys through all this talk about collective and all the things that were going on in the world of NIL, he never took money from our collective. All of what he did through NIL was his true Name, Image, and Likeness — the intent of the rule. On that front I’m very grateful for what he did for our program.
“All of us wish he would have gotten drafted higher. But at the end of the day if I could have picked a place that I think is a great fit for him, I think Miami is a great fit. Systematically what Coach McDaniel does is if not exactly the same, very similar to what we do. So there’s going to be a level of comfort for him of style of play. He’s got some great weapons on the outside, it’s a warm-weather place. So in the end I think it’s a good fit for him. Now it’s about taking advantage of the opportunity that presents itself.
“But I also thinks it’s ironic that so many things are written and talked about the players from a negative standpoint that transfer schools or stay in school to take more money, like it’s a negative. But all of a sudden here’s a guy that said I want to leave a legacy at Texas and I wanted to go play in the NFL and now they’re knocking him for not taking the money in college. I don’t know which side of the fence everyone sits on on that. But in the end I think it speaks to the character of him, of what he believed in, what he stood for. Nobody wanted to win a national championship as much or more than Quinn on our team the last couple years. And I don’t think anybody felt it more than he did when we didn’t beat Ohio State with his track record of going to school there. In the end it wasn’t about going to another school, it was about the next part of the journey in his career, in his life, and that was going to the NFL. Like I said, he’s got a good opportunity in front of him, now it’s time to go make the most of it.”
Horns247’s Eric Henry obtained this answer from Sarkisian on-site in Houston.
