COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Quinn Ewers era at Ohio State will apparently end with two handoffs and a big “What if?”
Yahoo’s Pete Thamel reported Friday night that Ewers informed Ohio State that he plans to enter the transfer portal, which cleveland.com confirmed through an OSU spokesperson. He has not entered the portal yet, but the process has been started.
The top-ranked player from the 2021 class played in only one game this season, handing off twice at the end of a 56-7 victory over Michigan State.
Ewers was the top-ranked player in the 2022 class before reclassifying to 2021 to take advantage of name, image and likeness earning opportunities. He was expected to compete for playing time this spring. However, C.J. Stroud was coming off a Heisman Trophy finalist-worthy season and had a big leg up to begin 2022 as the starter.
Thamel listed Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech as Ewers’ most likely destination. Ewers is a Texas native, and his decision to enroll early at Ohio State was prompted by a prohibition on NIL income for high school athletes in his home state.
Among Ewers’ endorsement opportunities while at OSU, Ewers signed a reported $1.4 million autograph deal with a sports memorabilia company, as well as a contract with the Holy Kombucha! beverage company, based in Texas.
Ewers is the second scholarship quarterback to leave the Buckeyes in the past week. Redshirt freshman Jack Miller III announced his intent to transfer one day after a regular season-ending 42-25 loss at Michigan.
In addition to Stroud, the only other scholarship quarterback on the roster is Kyle McCord, who was Stroud’s primary backup this past season. On Wednesday night, OSU received a commitment from Class of 2022 four-star prospect Devin Brown, who will join the quarterback room in the spring.
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