Sixteen months ago, few prospective college athletes had as many choices as Quinn Ewers. With supreme athletic gifts and a bleach-blonde mullet, Ewers was the country’s top high-school quarterback by a resounding consensus. The suburban Dallas-Forth Worth star attracted scholarship offers from 31 schools and in August 2020 chose to attend Texas.
But Ewers was not done choosing. Two months later, he decommitted from Texas and reopened recruitment, this time electing to attend Ohio State beginning in 2022. Then last summer—just after new rules allowing college athletes to make money from endorsements kicked in—he forewent his senior year at Southlake Carroll High School to enroll early at Ohio State for the 2021 season, moving up a class.
Ewers immediately attracted an enviable array of endorsement deals that some reports have estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. What he didn’t attract, however, was playing time. He took just two snaps for the Buckeyes this season on a quarterback-rich team.
So last week, Ewers decided it was time to choose again. He entered the NCAA’s transfer portal, with the intention of finding a new college team back in his home state. For the third time in less than a year and a half, it was time to decide where to play college football.
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Ewers is taking advantage of this time of flux in college sports. New rules allow players to move between programs with ease while also making money from their name, image and likeness. He’s either a trailblazer or a pariah. It’s not just coaches that Ewers is leaving behind—it’s also sponsors like Ricart Automotive in Columbus, which gave Ewers a loaded pickup truck.
He’s not alone in making a change. The transfer portal is loaded with players—especially quarterbacks—looking to relocate. And they’re not just benchwarmers.
Nebraska’s Adrian Martinez, Central Florida’s Dillon Gabriel and Indiana’s Michael Penix Jr. entered the transfer portal in December after starting at their respective schools for multiple seasons. They’re joined by Oklahoma’s Spencer Rattler, who began the season as the Heisman favorite before getting passed over by a freshman, and both of LSU’s top two quarterbacks, Myles Brennan and Max Johnson.
And then there is Ewers, who was the second high school quarterback ever to earn a perfect rating by several football recruiting services. Ewers originally planned to play his senior high-school season and enroll early at Ohio State in January 2022. When the NCAA changed its rules to allow athletes to sign endorsements for the use of their likeness, his calculus changed.
Ewers had undeniable marketability with more than 82,000 Instagram followers as of August — more than all but one of 2021’s Heisman Trophy finalists. But the University Interscholastic League, the governing body of Texas high school sports, didn’t follow the NCAA’s lead and denied the Ewers’ petition to make an exception to their ban on high schoolers signing endorsements. In mid-August, Ewers made a stunning decision and reclassified his recruiting class to 2021 so that he could enroll early with the Buckeyes.
“This is not a financial decision; this is about what is best for my football career,” Ewers wrote in a statement on Twitter at the time.
Ewers’ first practice with Ohio State came mid-way through the team’s pre-season camp, an odd time to join the team. He was joining a roster that had no shortage of talent at the quarterback position. Sophomore C.J. Stroud backed up first-round NFL Draft pick Justin Fields in 2020 and won the starting job last spring. Just behind him on the two-deep were redshirt freshman Jack Miller III and freshman Kyle McCord, a five-star recruit.
Not long after he started taking practice snaps as the Buckeyes’ fourth-string quarterback, Ewers landed himself two agents; a sponsorship with a national Kombucha brand; a deal with a sports memorabilia company; and a customized 2020 Ford F250 Super Duty pickup truck from a local car dealership, Ricart Automotive.
Partnering with Ewers was a no-brainer, said Rick Ricart, president of the dealership, because of the quarterback’s pedigree, magnetic personality and “stylish haircut.”
“I wanted the ability to be able to work with him as long as he is a student-athlete here at Ohio State. So we did a three-year deal that said we would have automotive exclusivity in the dealer market,” Ricart said. As part of the agreement, the dealership also paid Ewers to film ads, one of which aired locally during the Ohio State-Michigan game.
Ricart understood the changing dynamics in college football and was careful to include a contingency that would null the truck’s lease should Ewers transfer.
It’s unclear if the quarterback’s other deals include similar language. GT Sports Marketing, a trading card and autographed memorabilia distributor, signed Ewers to a three-year deal. It did not respond to requests for comment. Holy Kombucha, a Dallas-based beverage company that reportedly gave Ewers cash and equity to endorse their probiotic drinks, according to ESPN, did not respond to request for comment.
None of the endorsements were contingent on Ewers’ performance on the field, which was probably a good thing. Ewers only saw the field for two plays — both handoffs—when the Buckeyes were up by 49 points against Michigan State.
Buckeyes coach Ryan Day figured that developing Ewers was less time sensitive than developing the other passers on his roster, all of whom are older. Day turned out to be wrong: Ewers entered the transfer portal on Dec. 3 and announced his intention to play college ball somewhere in the state of Texas.
“I’d rather not get into too many of the details, but it kind of caught me a little bit off guard,” Day said over the weekend. “He was in a very unique situation, for sure.”
By transferring, Ewers is virtually ensuring that he will play sooner elsewhere than he would at Ohio State. As a Buckeye, he would likely have spent another year behind Stroud, a Heisman Trophy finalist, and then have to beat out McCord for the starting role in 2023. (Miller entered the transfer portal this month.)
Assuming he enrolls at his new school in January with enough time to learn the ropes, Ewers is talented enough to take first-team snaps in September 2022 — the same year his college career would have started had he not chased sponsorships. This is the new reality of college football.
“When you look at the number of people who are going into the portal and going to other schools, it’s significant,” Day said. “There are a lot of dynamics at play — roster management, recruiting, portal — as we move forward, we’re just trying to navigate what that looks like on a yearly basis.”
Switching teams has become so ubiquitous that even coaches who once took firm stances against adding transfers, like Alabama’s Nick Saban, have come around.
“Whether you agree with it or disagree with it, you have to look at it as a source of bringing talented players to your team,” Saban said on Saturday after his team shredded former No. 1 Georgia 42-21 in the Southeastern Conference Championship. Two of the Crimson Tide’s three passing touchdowns were caught by Jameson Williams, a wide receiver who transferred from Ohio State last spring.
Coaches aren’t the only ones squeezed by this era of quasi-free agency.
“That exact commercial [with Quinn] we will probably look at re-editing… and won’t continue airing it in Columbus,” said Ricart, the car dealer. In the meantime, he had an idea for how to make use of the now-obsolete footage the dealership shot with Ewers in his pickup truck.
“We might put together a little spoof or parody ad, like a parting ways video,” Ricart said. “A ‘We miss you already, Quinn’ montage.”
Write to Laine Higgins at laine.higgins@wsj.com
But Ewers was not done choosing. Two months later, he decommitted from Texas and reopened recruitment, this time electing to attend Ohio State beginning in 2022. Then last summer—just after new rules allowing college athletes to make money from endorsements kicked in—he forewent his senior year at Southlake Carroll High School to enroll early at Ohio State for the 2021 season, moving up a class.
Ewers immediately attracted an enviable array of endorsement deals that some reports have estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. What he didn’t attract, however, was playing time. He took just two snaps for the Buckeyes this season on a quarterback-rich team.
So last week, Ewers decided it was time to choose again. He entered the NCAA’s transfer portal, with the intention of finding a new college team back in his home state. For the third time in less than a year and a half, it was time to decide where to play college football.
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Ewers is taking advantage of this time of flux in college sports. New rules allow players to move between programs with ease while also making money from their name, image and likeness. He’s either a trailblazer or a pariah. It’s not just coaches that Ewers is leaving behind—it’s also sponsors like Ricart Automotive in Columbus, which gave Ewers a loaded pickup truck.
He’s not alone in making a change. The transfer portal is loaded with players—especially quarterbacks—looking to relocate. And they’re not just benchwarmers.
Nebraska’s Adrian Martinez, Central Florida’s Dillon Gabriel and Indiana’s Michael Penix Jr. entered the transfer portal in December after starting at their respective schools for multiple seasons. They’re joined by Oklahoma’s Spencer Rattler, who began the season as the Heisman favorite before getting passed over by a freshman, and both of LSU’s top two quarterbacks, Myles Brennan and Max Johnson.
And then there is Ewers, who was the second high school quarterback ever to earn a perfect rating by several football recruiting services. Ewers originally planned to play his senior high-school season and enroll early at Ohio State in January 2022. When the NCAA changed its rules to allow athletes to sign endorsements for the use of their likeness, his calculus changed.
At Southlake Carroll High School in suburban Dallas-Fort Worth, Ewers was so highly recruited that he attracted 31 scholarship offers.
PHOTO: SMILEY N. POOL/ASSOCIATED PRESSEwers had undeniable marketability with more than 82,000 Instagram followers as of August — more than all but one of 2021’s Heisman Trophy finalists. But the University Interscholastic League, the governing body of Texas high school sports, didn’t follow the NCAA’s lead and denied the Ewers’ petition to make an exception to their ban on high schoolers signing endorsements. In mid-August, Ewers made a stunning decision and reclassified his recruiting class to 2021 so that he could enroll early with the Buckeyes.
“This is not a financial decision; this is about what is best for my football career,” Ewers wrote in a statement on Twitter at the time.
Ewers’ first practice with Ohio State came mid-way through the team’s pre-season camp, an odd time to join the team. He was joining a roster that had no shortage of talent at the quarterback position. Sophomore C.J. Stroud backed up first-round NFL Draft pick Justin Fields in 2020 and won the starting job last spring. Just behind him on the two-deep were redshirt freshman Jack Miller III and freshman Kyle McCord, a five-star recruit.
Rick Ricart’s auto dealership in the Columbus area gave Ewers a truck as part of a three-year endorsement deal. The truck’s lease could be nulled in the case of a transfer.
PHOTO: RICART AUTOMOTIVENot long after he started taking practice snaps as the Buckeyes’ fourth-string quarterback, Ewers landed himself two agents; a sponsorship with a national Kombucha brand; a deal with a sports memorabilia company; and a customized 2020 Ford F250 Super Duty pickup truck from a local car dealership, Ricart Automotive.
Partnering with Ewers was a no-brainer, said Rick Ricart, president of the dealership, because of the quarterback’s pedigree, magnetic personality and “stylish haircut.”
“I wanted the ability to be able to work with him as long as he is a student-athlete here at Ohio State. So we did a three-year deal that said we would have automotive exclusivity in the dealer market,” Ricart said. As part of the agreement, the dealership also paid Ewers to film ads, one of which aired locally during the Ohio State-Michigan game.
Ricart understood the changing dynamics in college football and was careful to include a contingency that would null the truck’s lease should Ewers transfer.
It’s unclear if the quarterback’s other deals include similar language. GT Sports Marketing, a trading card and autographed memorabilia distributor, signed Ewers to a three-year deal. It did not respond to requests for comment. Holy Kombucha, a Dallas-based beverage company that reportedly gave Ewers cash and equity to endorse their probiotic drinks, according to ESPN, did not respond to request for comment.
None of the endorsements were contingent on Ewers’ performance on the field, which was probably a good thing. Ewers only saw the field for two plays — both handoffs—when the Buckeyes were up by 49 points against Michigan State.
Buckeyes coach Ryan Day figured that developing Ewers was less time sensitive than developing the other passers on his roster, all of whom are older. Day turned out to be wrong: Ewers entered the transfer portal on Dec. 3 and announced his intention to play college ball somewhere in the state of Texas.
“I’d rather not get into too many of the details, but it kind of caught me a little bit off guard,” Day said over the weekend. “He was in a very unique situation, for sure.”
By transferring, Ewers is virtually ensuring that he will play sooner elsewhere than he would at Ohio State. As a Buckeye, he would likely have spent another year behind Stroud, a Heisman Trophy finalist, and then have to beat out McCord for the starting role in 2023. (Miller entered the transfer portal this month.)
Assuming he enrolls at his new school in January with enough time to learn the ropes, Ewers is talented enough to take first-team snaps in September 2022 — the same year his college career would have started had he not chased sponsorships. This is the new reality of college football.
“When you look at the number of people who are going into the portal and going to other schools, it’s significant,” Day said. “There are a lot of dynamics at play — roster management, recruiting, portal — as we move forward, we’re just trying to navigate what that looks like on a yearly basis.”
Switching teams has become so ubiquitous that even coaches who once took firm stances against adding transfers, like Alabama’s Nick Saban, have come around.
“Whether you agree with it or disagree with it, you have to look at it as a source of bringing talented players to your team,” Saban said on Saturday after his team shredded former No. 1 Georgia 42-21 in the Southeastern Conference Championship. Two of the Crimson Tide’s three passing touchdowns were caught by Jameson Williams, a wide receiver who transferred from Ohio State last spring.
Coaches aren’t the only ones squeezed by this era of quasi-free agency.
“That exact commercial [with Quinn] we will probably look at re-editing… and won’t continue airing it in Columbus,” said Ricart, the car dealer. In the meantime, he had an idea for how to make use of the now-obsolete footage the dealership shot with Ewers in his pickup truck.
“We might put together a little spoof or parody ad, like a parting ways video,” Ricart said. “A ‘We miss you already, Quinn’ montage.”
Write to Laine Higgins at laine.higgins@wsj.com
