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Chris Lu is a senior writer at ESPN
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Quinn Ewers settled into the kind of rhythm his Texas coaches and teammates are accustomed to Saturday night in a hard-fought 27-24 win over Vanderbilt.
And he did so on the heels of one of Ewers’ most forgettable weeks on the Forty Acres. Not only was he benched for the first half of the Texans’ 30-15 home loss to Georgia, but a false report surfaced on social media that Ewers was opting out of the remainder of the season and preparing for the NFL draft.
“If he plays like this for the rest of the year, we’ll be OK. We’ll be OK,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said of Ewers, who completed 17 straight passes at one point and finished the game. 228 yards, 3 touchdowns, 2 interceptions.
Both interceptions came on tipped passes, with the first resulting in a Vanderbilt touchdown that gave the Commodores a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
But then, Ewers led the Longhorns in three punts, all of which ended in touchdown passes, the last two to DeAndre Moore Jr.
“It was normal for us,” Moore said. “We had a really great week of training, which is what I expected.”
So did Sarkisian, who said Ewers’ flexibility has been on display all season, as he missed parts of three games with an oblique injury. The first half last week against Georgia was a disaster for everyone on the Texas sideline. After the Bulldogs took a 20-0 lead in the first half, Sarkisian replaced Ewers with Arch Manning, although Ewers returned in the second half.
“It can’t be worse than how (Ewers) went last week, especially in the first half, and then being able to bounce back and show the determination that he showed,” Sarkisian said. “I always say the mark of a man’s true character is in the face of adversity, and that was a lot of adversity for him, and a lot of adversity for us as a team coming out of last week’s game.
“I think the way he responded was an indicator of how we responded as a team.”
Texas (7-1, 3-1) wasn’t able to put away No. 25 Vanderbilt until Moore recovered an onside kick with 44 seconds to play. The Commodores entered the competition ranked in the AP Poll for the first time since the end of the 2013 season.
“These weeks aren’t easy when you’re as emotionally invested in a game as you were last week and then you don’t play your best,” said Sarkisian, whose Longhorns won their ninth straight road game since the 2022 season. “It’s tough. It’s tough on coaches. It’s tough for a team to bounce back, and I think about how many times we’ve seen a team lose a game like (Georgia) and then get beaten again the next week because they’re still going through it.”
“I thought tonight’s game was a culture win and a hard-fought win for us. … We knew it was going to take 60 minutes against that style of team. They were a good football team. They weren’t ranked 25th in the country. By chance.”
Although it was technically a road game for Texas, the majority of FirstBank Stadium was decked out in burnt orange, as Longhorns fans descended on Nashville for the first meeting between the two teams since 1928 and Texas’ first SEC road contest.
The start of the game was not what Ewers or anyone on the Texans wanted. On the first possession of the game, Ewers caught a pass that Vanderbilt quarterback Langston Patterson punted and was intercepted by cornerback Martell Hite at the Texas 31. Five plays later, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia raced around right end for an 18-yard touchdown.
“There was no ‘poor me.’” “We just kept playing,” Ewers said.
Sarkisian isn’t sure Ewers would have responded with such poise two years ago after such a shaky start.
“It’s just a real credit to him, even coming out of last week’s game, when doubt creeps into your mind, it’s deadly,” Sarkisian said. “And I didn’t think there was an ounce of doubt in his mind. It was just bad luck (on the pass). He made a great read, the ball was cleared and it was intercepted. He came right back, and believed in his ability.” His preparations and his plan were already executed at a very high level.
“So I really want to give credit to him and his maturity and his belief in himself and his confidence and I want to give credit to his teammates because I think those guys have been making sure all week that they’ve been rooting for him and getting him ready to go.”
Moore, who finished with six catches for 97 yards, said his first touchdown catch came when Ewers was heard as Moore was moving.
“I told him, ‘Okay, he’s the (coverage) guy. Let’s go get it.’ He called the fade slot and put it there and let me go make a play,” Moore said, adding that this wasn’t the first time. Ewers changed the play mid-action.
“Yes, he has the ability to do that, especially in this crime. Quinn is the boss, so if he sees a look he might not like, he can change it into something else just like this.”
Ewers admitted he was “eager” to get back out there in a game with his teammates after last week’s loss to Georgia.
“I think it’s a credit to everyone that we went undefeated after the loss we had, and we came out here and played our football, especially in the first half,” Ewers said.
The Longhorns hurt themselves on penalties in the second half, and an interception led to the Commodores’ second touchdown of the second half to make the game 24-17.
“We did a good job of keeping the game going,” Ewers said.
He also shook off Monday’s madness when 247Sports said its Instagram account had been hacked with a fabricated report that Ewers was shutting him down for the rest of the season at Texas after a loss to Georgia.
“I mean, it was kind of random. I didn’t really know where they got it from or whether they got hacked or not. … It was definitely weird, and there’s not a lot to say about it,” Ewers said.
