Quinn Ewers “wanted to leave Texas in good standing,” his high school coach, Riley Dodge, told Horns247.
Given this sentiment, Ewers reportedly turned down an $8 million NIL deal offered by an unnamed school and opted instead to face the NFL Draft.
What some may view as a poor financial decision is, to others, a testament to Ewers’ loyalty to his soon-to-be alma mater.
“Texas was the only place he wanted to play college football,” Dodge told Horns247’s Chip Brown.
Ewers, who had one more year of eligibility left for NCAA play, made around $6 million through NIL within his three years at Texas, according to Horns247. Those three years resulted in a near-complete turnaround of the program, in which Ewers led the team to two back-to-back appearances in the College Football Playoff semifinals amongst plenty of attention, good and bad, from college football fanatics.
“I don’t really pay attention to it,” Ewers said before playing Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl, according to Horns247. “When I was younger, maybe a little bit more. But as I’ve grown up, I’ve come to fully understand that relying on what other people think of me won’t get me anywhere, and that’s just not a healthy way to go about life.”
Even before his transfer from Ohio State to Texas, Ewers gained criticism for taking NIL money from Ohio State instead of completing his senior year at high school. He said the decision was made purely in consideration for his family.
“Me and my family had a pretty big opportunity in front of us,” Ewers said in that same Cotton Bowl press conference. “We felt that it was a good decision for me to go on and forgo my senior year and enroll early at Ohio State and have the opportunity to have some good money in our pockets as a family.”
Now, the quarterback has decided against the more lucrative option and set his sights on a future in the NFL. Scouts report that he could go anywhere from the bottom of the first round to the top of the third. Assisting him is the lack of quarterback stardom in the draft.
Although the opportunity presented itself for Ewers to pad his pockets even more, if he does well in the NFL, it can be expected that another, even better contract will come his way.
