Ryan Day Reveals True Feelings About Quinn Ewers Leaving Ohio State for Texas

In what feels like a distant fever dream, Texas Longhorns star quarterback Quinn Ewers actually spent the first season of his college football career with the Ohio State Buckeyes.

As a recruit, Ewers was one of the most sought-after players in the country, with 247Sports ranking him as one of the highest-ranked recruits since 2000. While he initially committed to Tom Herman's Texas program, he eventually flipped to play at Ohio State, whom he joined after skipping his senior year of high school and reclassifying from the 2022 class to 2021. 

His time in Columbus was brief as he joined the fold late, and was in a quarterback room that may have been overcrowded with talent with names like CJ Stroud and Kyle McCord in the mix. After his lone season at Ohio State, he entered his name into the transfer portal and landed at Texas. A decision that the former co-offensive coordinator and current Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was asked about on Friday ahead of next week's Cotton Bowl semifinal between the two teams.

"And then we went through the process and boy, it was strange how it all shook out," Day said via 247Sports. "He decided to come really in the middle of preseason camp for us and so it was a little bit strange. But, again, with college football, you look to adapt the best you can and then C.J. (Stroud) really had a great season that season and (Ewers) decided he really wanted to play and it was disappointing for us, but we certainly understood.

"And from afar, I've watched him and he's got a lot of talent," Day said. "He's a really good player. He comes from a great family and he's had a great career at Texas and a lot of people here still have good relationships with him and think the world of him..."