Did we just witness the start of Quinn Ewers’ Heisman campaign?

Maybe not quite yet, since a final stat of 246 yards on 36 attempts does not represent a game-deciding level of performance, but we learned a lot about the young quarterback today.

Ewers has proven time and time again that he is a big game player, and Saturday’s triumphant 31-12 win at Michigan was just another addition to his impressive record.

In four games and one quarter (due to an unfortunate injury in the 2022 game against Alabama) against top-10 teams, Ewers has now thrown eight touchdowns and just two interceptions, averaging 287 yards per game in wins against both Alabama and Michigan over the past two seasons.

Ewers’ halftime stats were downright absurd: 203 yards on 26 attempts, helping the team convert eight of 10 third downs and two touchdowns, leading to a 24-3 lead over the defending national champions, a group that returned 11 players who played over 200 snaps in 2023.

The junior quarterback showed everything fans have accused him of in the past. Ewers used his legs to create big plays, especially on his run to find tight end Gunnar Helm 21 yards downfield for the first scoring effort in Ann Arbor. Ewers lined up in a rapidly closing pocket, nimbly charged forward and threw perfectly into Helm’s hands on the run.

Yet no play seemed more important to the Longhorns quarterback than the third of the game. After an unsuccessful rush, a false start and an incomplete pass, the Michigan crowd was loud, perhaps the loudest Ewers had ever heard in his young career. With 111,000 fans in the stadium, most dressed in corn, the junior quarterback made one of the most expert plays of his career, throwing the ball between two defenders into the waiting arms of Isaiah Bond, a player who scored last year as part of the Crimson Tide in their second game in Tuscaloosa against the Longhorns.

You have to give credit to the offensive line for holding off the rush or for Bond getting past his first defender, but the pass was an example of Ewers’ improvement from last year, when he was able to get the ball deep down the field despite all the elements working against him.

Ewers seemed more comfortable in this Sarkisian offense than ever before, a testament to the development the quarterback has shown from his second year to his third. Sarkisian’s offense looked steady and consistent for the second week in a row, only slowing down at the end of the game to protect the lead.

The Longhorns were in the 79th percentile or higher in the following rate statistics: Estimated Points Added Per Game, Estimated Points Added Per Dropback, Explosive Play Rate, and Third-Eye Success Rate.

The Longhorns wasted no time in this game, something they have struggled with early in the 2023 College Football Playoff season. While the 2023 Longhorns struggled early in games against teams like Wyoming and Rice, Texas put itself in good scoring position on all of its early drives.

It took Texas six drives to give the ball away to Michigan and eight to do so twice. The Longhorns scored on four of their first five drives, with the first drive ending in an eerie missed field goal by kicker Bert Auburn. It took the Wolverines over 35 minutes to stop this Longhorn offense, forcing the team’s first punt after a short five-play drive.

Deft as ever, Ewers turned around and scored on the very next drive. Freshman wide receiver Ryan Wingo electrified a 75-yard drive with his 55-yard end-around run that brought the Longhorns to the three-yard line. Despite a mistake on the next snap that likely saw Michigan hit Ewers too late after he knelt down and lost five yards, Ewers connected on a third-down swing pass with running back Jaydon Blue and scored on five of the first seven drives, punting once and never losing the ball.

At that pace, you would have expected the Longhorns to take 50 points from the Wolverines, but Texas did what it needed to do to win the game. A weird interception got Texas back the ball quickly after the scoring drive, but Texas couldn’t score again. However, the Longhorn offense did its job by running down the clock to secure the win. Texas held the ball for 6:42 after Michigan ended its drive with eight and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter, dominating possession despite scoring fewer points in the final quarter of the game.

Although the offense showed weaknesses in the running game and there were mistakes between Ewers and center Jake Majors, the junior quarterback is now a veteran in the bright orange or icy white on the road. Ewers is yet to have a Heisman season, but with no major challenges ahead until Oklahoma and Georgia in October, the quarterback can rest easy knowing he beat last year’s national champions.