2022 No. 1 QB Quinn Ewers decommits from Texas

One of the biggest quarterback pledges of the modern recruiting era for the Texas Longhorns is now a former pledge, as 2022 Southlake Carroll quarterback Quinn Ewers announced his decommitment on Wednesday in a crushing development for head coach Tom Herman’s program.

The commitment from Ewers in mid-August sent shockwaves through the college football landscape — at the time, he was ranked as the top prospect in the 2022 recruiting class and possessed a rare perfect rating from 247Sports. Ewers has now dropped to No. 2 in the rankings and lost his perfect rankings, but he’s still the top pro-style quarterback in the class.

Assuming that Ewers doesn’t decide to re-commit to Texas after further exploring the recruiting process — a relatively rare decision — the Longhorns will suffer from the loss significantly in the 2022 class. With Ewers in the fold, Texas was expected to sign a top class.

The impact of taking the pledge from Ewers also hit the 2021 Longhorns class in a negative way, as the quarterback pledge in that class, Jalen Milroe of Katy Tompkins, a top-100 prospect and the No. 4 dual-threat quarterback, flipped to the Crimson Tide. Texas subsequently flipped Austin High product Charles Wright from Iowa State, but there is a significant dropoff in the rankings because Wright isn’t ranked among the top 1,000 prospects nationally and sits at No. 40 among pro-style quarterbacks, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

There’s also a concern about whether Ewers made the decision to decommit because of his perception of how the long-term future looks for Texas under Herman after the disappointing 3-3 start to the 2020 season — such a vote of no confidence could reverberate on the recruiting trail with the Longhorns already struggling to finish the 2021 class.

And, of course, that long-term future now looks significantly different with the loss of a potentially generational quarterback to lead it.

It’s a dark night on the Forty Acres.