Former NFL quarterback Jeff Christensen, coach to NFL stars like Patrick Mahomes, figures he is received the final 120 throws on tape from Quinn Ewers’ mulleted previous.

Shortly after the 2022 season ended, Christensen, who’s labored with Ewers since highschool, did a throwing session with the previous five-star QB.

Ewers’ redshirt freshman season — actually, what ought to have been his true freshman marketing campaign, given he reclassified out of highschool — went OK. He threw for 1,808 yards and 14 touchdowns and helped Texas leap from 5-7 to 8-5. It felt like he left loads on the desk, although. The participant as soon as billed as a generational QB prospect accomplished simply 56.6% of his passes with a touchdown-to-interception ratio only a shade over 2-to-1 throughout a season that noticed him miss a number of video games resulting from a painful shoulder damage. The identical participant who threw 4 touchdowns in a 49-0 thrashing of Oklahoma may, per week later, toss three interceptions and full 38.7% of his passes on a windy day on the street at Oklahoma State

Ewers, who will lead Texas in opposition to No. 10 Michigan on Saturday in Ann Arbor (12 p.m. ET, FOX), had conversations along with his household and the Texas teaching workers after the 2022 season led to an Alamo Bowl loss to Washington. What may he do to enhance?

That coaching session felt like the primary time Christensen noticed a brand new model of Ewers. It is when he thinks every thing clicked.

“Since that day he is accomplished nothing however get higher in leaps and bounds, step-by-step,” Christensen mentioned. 

When that exercise ended, Ewers informed Christensen of an upcoming change. He wanted a brand new look to go along with his perspective.

Round 9:30 a.m. the next day, Ewers shaved off his mullet. His signature coiffure that helped him rake in additional than $1 million in NIL cash was gone. It was symbolic, actually. The mullet has lengthy been coined to suggest “enterprise within the entrance, social gathering within the again”. 

This new model of Ewers was all enterprise. 

“Each participant will get to that time of understanding information versus notion,” Christensen mentioned. “Him being a really, excellent, variety, considerate, good-hearted child understood this is not about my hair. However the notion, phantasm that some get would possibly assume — and I am not talking for him — is that I am not taking this critical. In the end, my job is management of individuals and being correct. They are not paying me for my bodily look. They’re paying me to steer and win shut video games and be nearly as good as I might be. If I am doing something that provides anyone an phantasm of me not being critical, I most likely must cease that.”

Requested about that apply and what Christensen mentioned, Ewers laughed. He does not keep in mind the particular day or dialog however typically agreed with the evaluation.

“It was time to let that go,” Ewers mentioned. “It was sort of like a restart.”

A signature assertion

The blond, flowing locks trickling out of the again of Ewers’ helmet weren’t weighing him down whereas making throws. It wasn’t costing him NIL {dollars}. It was, nevertheless, a symbolic impediment for the place Ewers needs to go. 

The mullet, a glance that was in every single place within the early 2020s as chart-toppin’, hell-raisin’ Morgan Wallen ascended the nation music scene, is in fact only a haircut. But it surely’s additionally a press release. Possibly one in all indifference, perhaps one in all irreverence. They are saying to not choose a ebook by its over, however it says one thing that Ewers and his camp realized the mullet wanted to go. 

It should have been an odd choice. The mullet was Ewers’ look all through highschool, the place he carried the strain that comes with being a teenage phenom. As a sophomore, 247Sports named him the No. 1 total highschool prospect within the Class of 2022. That strain solely intensified when he blazed a brand new path by skipping his senior yr of highschool to money in on hundreds of thousands in NIL cash at Ohio State. Ewers was roundly criticized for leaving Texas on the time, however now 39 of fifty states enable highschool athletes to earn NIL in some kind (Ewers transferred after one season at Ohio State and dedicated to Texas, who he had been dedicated to beforehand as a highschool prospect). 

Ewers’ rowdy hair was there with him for each step of that early success. When he minimize it, it was an emblem of his personal inside development. His committment to go from teenage phenom to one in all faculty soccer’s finest. His household knew the change would show symbolic, particularly in a spot like Austin the place QB1 is below a relentless microscope.

“I feel there have been some conversations he had — Jeff will not be unsuitable — if you’re the quarterback on the College of Texas, and I feel Sarkisian mentioned one thing to this impact, your repute precedes you somewhat bit,” Quinn’s dad, Curtis Ewers mentioned. “No matter the way you play the place or who you’re as a teammate, the notion does have an effect in methods chances are you’ll or might not have the ability to management.”

In some methods, the hair distracted from who Ewers is if you get an opportunity to talk with him: An introspective, nearly introverted one-time teenage celebrity who’s lengthy handled the pressures of fame and the crucial eye that comes with it. 

‘It is Quinn rising up’

When Curtis Ewers thinks again on the 2022-23 offseason of change, he mentioned the enhancements had been easy — however not restricted to a haircut. 

“When you had been going to boil it down to at least one or two issues, it is Quinn rising up,” Curtis mentioned. “He is not a completed product. Everyone matures and evolves in their very own approach, and I feel it was a kind of occasions it was noticeable.”

A crucial component of that was his health. Ewers drastically modified his weight loss program, dropping from a listed 207 kilos to 195 forward of the 2023 season. He took off dangerous weight and added again muscle, enjoying lighter than he had since highschool in an effort to carry again a number of the fluid mobility that had made him such an intriguing prospect.

“It was (about altering) simply the best way my physique felt,” Ewers informed The Athletic. “I did not really feel wholesome.”

It labored. Ewers averaged 5.9 yards per rush in 2023, per PFF, after simply 3.1 yards per carry the yr. earlier than. 

Ewers additionally refocused on his footwork and mechanics. No, these weren’t damaged. Ewers boasts uncommon arm expertise, and scrapping his fundamentals would have been an ill-gotten thought. However Christensen, amongst others, helped refine how Ewers executed.

The outcomes had been quick. Ewers’ completion share jumped to 70.7%, and his yards per try moved from 7.3 to 9. Texas felt the profit as properly, leaping from 8-4 to 11-2. He led the Longhorns to their first convention title since 2009 and this system’s first-ever Faculty Soccer Playoff look.

Quinn Ewers’ Passing Stats at Texas

One other enterprise choice 

Quick foward to this previous offseason, when Ewers wanted to make a distinct sort of alternative: Keep in faculty or enter the NFL Draft?

Similar to his choice from the yr earlier than, Ewers’ alternative to return again to Texas for a 3rd yr because the Longhorns’ starter got here right down to enterprise. 

“There’s a line of demarcation for guys who actually have success within the league, and clearly there are some guys which have uncommon accounts of it not being this manner, however there’s a line, sort of 25, 25 begins,” Ewers mentioned at SEC Media Days.

When the NFL modified its collective bargaining settlement in 2011, it restricted the variety of hours groups can apply and spend in group conferences. Which means fewer reps and fewer alternatives for younger gamers to develop. That is particularly detrimental to extremely drafted QBs, who are sometimes pressured onto the sector rapidly. Largely gone are the times an Aaron Rodgers or perhaps a Jordan Love can sit for a number of seasons earlier than being thrust into motion; three of the 5 wholesome first-round QBs from the 2024 draft will begin for his or her groups Week 1.

That is when faculty expertise comes into play. 

A sampling of collegiate snaps from notable first-round NFL picks

Each story and state of affairs is totally different — a number of QBs, like Zach Wilson (28 begins), run counter to that faculty expertise principle — however that is an information level Ewers thought-about strongly when making his NFL Draft choice.

He’d solely began 22 video games by the tip of the 2023 season. The additional reps he’d acquire at Texas and his long-term objectives nearly demanded that he return.

“Quinn was very receptive to sustaining his aim, which was to be a profitable NFL quarterback, not simply get there,” Curtis Ewers mentioned. “It was a really mature method he took.”

Endorsed on advantage, not mullet 

Ewers would possibly lack his once-distinctive mullet. However he is no much less marketable now than he was two years in the past. In truth, the bigger public most likely sees him extra typically than ever. Ewers is a canopy athlete for the favored online game “EA Sports activities NCAA 25.” He is a featured member of Dr. Pepper’s nationwide “Fansville” marketing campaign. He is additionally in adverts for Hulu and Athletic Brewing Firm, which makes non-alcoholic beer.

Not that some advertisers did not need him to maintain what was as soon as dubbed a “million-dollar mullet.”

“There have been some advertising and marketing alternatives that needed him to maintain (the hair), frankly,” Curtis Ewers mentioned. “I feel it is one other instance of Quinn not caring concerning the advertising and marketing alternatives and taking full benefit of these. He turns down 9 out of 10 which can be supplied to him.”

As for the 2024 season, one which comes with main expectations for the No. 3 Longhorns, the early returns are already fairly optimistic. Ewers accomplished 74.1% of his passes in Texas’ season-opening win over Colorado State.

That is an accuracy leap Christensen expects to be a preview for the remainder of the yr.

“I’ve a very good feeling we now know that this yr it is going to occur (once more),” Christensen mentioned.

‘That Group Up North’

The most important take a look at, at the very least early within the season, might be this week in opposition to Michigan. The Wolverines are the defending nationwide champions and have a protection plagued by potential first-round picks within the 2024 NFL Draft. It is also Ewers’ first alternative to start out in opposition to Michigan after starting his profession at Ohio State.

Ewers by no means noticed the sector for the Buckeyes, however he introduced some standard Ohio State vernacular again with him to the Lone Star state. He drew headlines at SEC Media Days when he referred to Michigan because the “Group Up North,” a longtime standard slang time period for Buckeyes followers and gamers who refuse to call the stat or Wolverines program by identify. It was a quip that drew a number of chuckles. 

“I feel it is humorous, to be trustworthy with you,” Curtis Ewers mentioned. “It is the ‘Group Up North’ to Quinn. There is not any doubt about it. However he sort of says it tongue-in-cheek, proper?”

The balmy day in Dallas was the proper time for Ewers to flash his dry humorousness. Saturday in Ann Arbor, Michigan, then again, is a chance for the Texas quarterback to indicate the opposite facet of himself. It is the one he is been cultivating and feeding since that April day in 2022. 

The enterprise facet.