An incredibly juicy scenario has been floating around the internet. Let’s play it out: What if Quinn Ewers enters the transfer portal and goes to Notre Dame? Well, a lot of things could be true at the same time. For Texas, this wouldn’t be as wild of a development as one might think. If the options are to start Arch Manning vs. shelling out millions to keep Ewers and potentially lose Manning to the portal, well, the former is the obvious choice. It’s hard to fathom any world in which Texas shells out big NIL money for the final year of Ewers’ eligibility while Manning serves as his backup in his third year in Austin. OK, that’s the boring part. I wanted to get that out of the way first. Oh wait! One last thing on that! In the expanded Playoff, Texas and Notre Dame could meet in 2025. It’d be a storyline to monitor if that happened this year in the national championship. I’ve joked that Ewers is playing in a “revenge game” against his former school, Ohio State (the Buckeyes are favored by 5.5 points via DraftKings Sportsbook), but facing the program that he spent 3 years building back up would be all sorts of intriguing. That’s a cliché sports movie plot that could play out in 2025 if Ewers finished his career in South Bend. Alright, let’s get back to the matter at hand. That is, what this would mean for Ewers. Once the initial shock/scoff of these rumors wore off, I became more supportive of such a potential move for all parties. And no, I’m not just saying that because I’m in the content business of writing about this sport 12 months a year. Ewers replacing Riley Leonard in South Bend would allow him to, as weird as it sounds, escape the Manning cloud. It’s been hovering over Ewers since Manning made the pre-senior season of high school announcement that he’d be taking his talents to Austin. I’d argue that Ewers has handled that especially well considering he was an even higher-rated recruit than Manning or anyone in the history of the 247Sports rankings era. That was back when Ewers was a young, mullet-rocking gunslinger who was just trying to get Texas back to national relevance. Fast forward to who Ewers is after 3 years as Texas’ QB1. He’s a clutch but somewhat limited passer who dealt with multi-game injuries in each of those 3 seasons, and his NFL Draft stock isn’t believed to be in the “instant generational wealth” tier. How much of Ewers’ low moments in 2024 are related to the oblique and ankle injuries he suffered in 2024? That’s in the eye of the beholder. If you’re looking at this through Marcus Freeman’s vantage point, Ewers is the quarterback who, if he returned to college football, would have more Playoff experience than anyone in the sport. There’s nobody in the portal or on the recruiting trail who can boast about a single throw like the one that Ewers made on 4th-and-13 in the Peach Bowl to keep Texas’ season alive.   Even if Notre Dame believes that Ewers has limitations, let’s remember that this program just beat Georgia by double digits with Leonard leading the nation’s No. 108 passing attack. It’s a credit to offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and the young Notre Dame offensive line that the Irish won 12 consecutive games with a somewhat predictable offense. Those 2 elements would be a huge selling point for Ewers. He’d leave arguably the best schemer in the sport in Steve Sarkisian for Denbrock, AKA the guy who was Jayden Daniels’ OC at LSU. Denbrock won’t be able to mold Ewers into the running threat that Daniels or even Leonard were, but he would certainly develop his mobility. Ewers has shown flashes of that, but with his injury history and his effortless release, he’s never been asked to be anything close to a dual-threat quarterback. Let’s remember that he spent his first 2 seasons as a starter handing the ball off to Bijan Robinson and Jonathan Brooks, both of whom were the first running backs selected in their respective NFL Draft classes. So if Ewers opted to play for Denbrock, he could work to develop an area of his game that’ll help him become a more enticing NFL prospect. Ewers would also have a luxury that Leonard didn’t have. Instead of working with a starting offensive line that had just 6 career starts entering the 2024 season, Ewers would operate behind potentially one of the most established units in FBS, depending on some NFL decisions. Look at Notre Dame’s current starting offensive line starters, all of whom have at least 1 year of eligibility remaining:
  • RT Aamil Wagner — Draft-eligible, but 2 years of eligibility remaining after first year as starter
  • LT Anthonie Knapp — Freshman All-American, started all 14 games
  • RG Billy Schrauth — Draft-eligible, but 2 years of eligibility remaining after first year as starter
  • LG Rocco Spindler — Draft-eligible, but 1 year of eligibility remaining after first full year as starter
  • C Pat Coogan — Draft-eligible, but 1 year of eligibility remaining
Coogan is the only player in that group who had legitimate starting experience before the 2024 season, but he was in and out of the lineup. That’s worth mentioning because in all likelihood, the Irish will retain the vast majority of their offensive line production (Week 1 LG starter Sam Pendleton also played 490 snaps as a redshirt freshman in 2024). That’s extremely attractive for a quarterback like Ewers. Texas’ offensive line is expected to undergo a significant change with both tackles (Kelvin Banks Jr. and Cam Williams) projected as 1st-round picks. Notre Dame’s 2025 offensive line could be a favorite to win the Joe Moore Award, which is about all a quarterback can ask for in what would be his final year of eligibility. That’s the risk that Ewers would be taking on. If he gets hurt next year, that would be 4 consecutive years of multi-game absences due to injury. It’d be a serious concern for NFL front offices. At the same time, Ewers would still have to answer to that if he entered the NFL Draft after Texas’ Playoff run. It would be similar to the health questions that Michael Penix Jr. faced on the heels of 4 season-ending injuries at Indiana. Penix got a chance to move past that by exhausting his college eligibility with 2 years working with Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb at Washington. Not only did Penix stay on the field en route to Heisman Trophy runner-up honors, but he led Washington to a national title berth and was selected No. 8 overall by the Atlanta Falcons. Ewers choosing the Notre Dame route wouldn’t necessarily guarantee that he’d check any of those boxes. But if guys like Penix, Bo Nix or even the aforementioned Daniels could rewrite their final chapters with the perfect transfer destination, who’s to say that Ewers can’t do the same? It’s a fascinating possibility to think about for one of the sport’s household names. It’s not a move that would’ve seemed likely given Ewers’ lack of Notre Dame ties. Outside of the year that Ewers spent at Ohio State, he doesn’t have any ties to the Midwest, either. Well, he does simulate a fall Midwest environment by keeping his Austin house at a cool 62 degrees at all times (he’s a hooded sweatshirt enthusiast). But other than that, this would be as football-focused of a portal transaction as there is. Ewers could be the piece that helps keep the Irish in the national championship hunt next season. Alternatively, this could all be for naught and he’s already made up his mind that the NFL is his next move. Whatever the case, Ewers appears to have some options. None is more interesting — and perhaps mutually beneficial — than the one in South Bend.