2 weeks Ago
Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) rolls out to pass against Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Dallas. Texas won 34-3.
AP PHOTO BY JEFFREY MCWHORTER Georgia quarterback Carson Beck (15) directs his teammates against Tennessee Tech on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Athens, Ga. AP PHOTO BY JOHN BAZEMORE Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save In the end, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and Georgia quarterback Carson Beck look like they’re exactly where they’re supposed to be.
They’ve helped steer their teams into the Southeastern Conference championship game, with No. 2 Texas (11-1) taking on No. 5 Georgia (10-2) on Saturday in Atlanta (3 p.
m., ABC). The winner gets a trophy and an automatic berth in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals (likely in the Sugar Bowl) while the loser still probably will be slinging it in a CFP first-round game somewhere.
But neither player’s season has gone exactly as expected. Ewers has battled injuries and the pressure from rising star backup Arch Manning of New Orleans. Beck has, at times, been his own worst enemy in terms of turnovers.
Both were early Heisman Trophy favorites and were expected to be first-round draft picks. The season they had knocked Beck and Ewers out of both of those pictures. It would be a surprise to find either quarterback among the 3-5 finalists invited next weekend to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, and an even bigger surprise to find either one having his name called during the first round of the NFL draft.
In fact, Cam Mellor with College Football Network recently published a mock draft that had Ewers going in the fourth round to the New Orleans Saints. Ewers is the bigger question mark of the two in terms of where he is physically going into the season’s biggest game so far. After missing starts against UL-Monroe and Mississippi State with a serious abdominal strain, Ewers reclaimed his starting spot from Manning in time to throw and rush for touchdowns in a 34-3 rout of Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry.
But an ankle injury Nov. 23 against Kentucky also hampered him going into the regular-season finale at Texas A&M. Ewers played most of the game in the 17-7 victory, throwing for 218 yards and one score and rushing four times for 29 yards, but he again gave way to Manning, who scored the Longhorns’ first touchdown on a 15-yard keeper.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said that Ewers practiced Monday, but he also said the team is taking a day-by-day approach to his availability against Georgia. “It’ll be very similar to last week,” he said. Beck’s season has been one of highs and lows with performances filled with both passing yards and turnovers.
In a six-game stretch from the Bulldogs’ 41-34 loss at Alabama on Sept. 28 to Georgia’s 28-10 loss at Ole Miss on Nov. 9, Beck threw 12 interceptions against just 10 touchdowns.
Yes, he threw for 439 yards against the Crimson Tide as part of a dramatic second-half comeback from a 30-7 halftime deficit and 459 yards against State, but the turnovers seemed to define him more than anything else. The past three weeks, however, Beck has battled back. In a showdown with No.
7 Tennessee, he was 25 of 40 for 347 yards and two scores in a huge 31-17 victory. And in the regular-season finale against Georgia Tech, an eight-overtime epic won by the Bulldogs 44-42 this past Friday, Beck was 28 of 43 for 297 yards and five touchdowns, two of them in overtime, as Georgia rallied from a 17-0 halftime deficit. In their regular-season matchup, Georgia’s 30-15 win at Texas on Oct.
19, both quarterbacks had their travails. Beck was 23 of 41 for 175 yards with three picks and no touchdowns, while Ewers was 25 of 43 for 211 yards with two touchdowns, an interception and five sacks. A rematch like this is uncharted territory, Beck said.
“It's the first time I've ever had to play a team twice in a season,” he said Monday on an SEC teleconference. “So it's a little bit different obviously. We kind of know what their identity is as a team.
They know what our identity is as a team. We faced each other before. It will be interesting as we prepare through the week, what we like, what we don't like.
” Both quarterbacks certainly know what they liked and didn’t like about this season. It’s now on them to help their powerhouse programs win a championship, position them for the layoffs and perhaps eclipse some of what went awry for them during their regular seasons..
