It's been 49 days since Ohio State beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl.
Quinn Ewers has heard about Jack Sawyer's scoop-and-score just about every day since.
On Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine, the former Texas and Ohio State quarterback reflected on Sawyer's heroics in Dallas on Jan. 10. While Ewers is disappointed he couldn't deliver a win for the Longhorns, Ewers said he is proud of Sawyer for sending his team to the national championship game in style.
"Yeah, I mean, how crazy is that? Just a complete full-circle moment for everybody – me and Jack especially, just getting up to Ohio State and being roommates with that guy, and then him finishing off kind of our career like that," Ewers said. "I'm super proud of him and the team, for sure, to go win a national championship. But, you know, it's tough on our end whenever you lose a game like that."
“I'm super proud of him and the team, for sure, to go win a national championship.”– Quinn Ewers on Jack Sawyer's scoop-and-score
Ewers can recall every detail of Sawyer's scoop-and-score.
"It's a tough play. It's a good play by him," he said. "He made a move past our right tackle, and I think he got a little faster than he was back (when I was with him) at Ohio State because he got up on me pretty quick."
From there, Ewers said Sawyer proved big-time players make big-time plays in big-time moments.
"He's a great player. He was fun to play against. He definitely made a good play there," Ewers said, admitting that he thinks about the scoop-and-score frequently. "It's such a big play. It seems like that play was our entire season. But it was a fun year, and it was a fun three years (at Texas)."
JACK SAWYER, THE MAN THAT YOU ARE pic.twitter.com/tQrhrXBqoF
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) January 11, 2025
In his three years at Texas, Ewers completed 64.9 percent of his passes for 9,128 yards, 68 touchdowns and 24 interceptions, earning second-team All-Big 12 honors in 2023 and second-team All-SEC honors in 2024.
His career with the Longhorns came after one year at Ohio State in which he and Kyle McCord backed up C.J. Stroud in 2021. Ewers, who enrolled at Ohio State that August after he reclassified from the 2022 class to the 2021 class, made one appearance for the Buckeyes that season, earning two snaps at the end of Ohio State's 56-7 win over Michigan State.
Ewers admitted Friday that he used to feel regret that he passed on his senior season at Southlake Carroll to start his Ohio State career a year early. Now, however, he feels thankful for the time he spent in Columbus learning under Stroud and Ryan Day.
"There was a good chunk of money that could change a lot of things. I decided to go ahead and take that step at the time," Ewers said. "I was at Ohio State. I might have regretted it, just looking back on my homies back home, watching them play their senior year and live their senior year. Looking back on it now, I don't regret anything I did just because of the amount I learned while I was at Ohio State and throughout the entire process."
Later, Ewers added, "Going to college, being on my own, I think I really had to grow up really fast. I matured a lot when I was there. I wasn't as mature as I am now when I was there. But I needed that. I needed that, for sure. It was definitely good for me to go up there and experience what I experienced. ... I kind of needed that knockdown."
“I wasn't as mature as I am now when I was there. But I needed that. I needed that, for sure. It was definitely good for me to go up there and experience what I experienced. ... I kind of needed that knockdown.”– Quinn Ewers on maturing as a freshman at Ohio State
Ewers, who revealed Friday he played almost the entire 2024 season with a torn oblique, is one of the top quarterbacks available in the 2025 NFL draft. While Miami's Cam Ward and Colorado's Shedeur Sanders are the top quarterbacks on most draft boards, Ewers is in competition with the likes of Ole Miss' Jaxson Dart, Alabama's Jalen Milroe, Ohio State's Will Howard and McCord to be the next QBs off the board.
