QB Quinn Ewers is on track with the accolades heading into Arkansas

From the last bye week comes No. 5 Texas As the Longhorns prepared for the final four games of the regular season, the Longhorns began a season-defining second half of their SEC schedule. The stretch run could also define the quarterback's career Quinn Ewerswho started on his right foot in the 49-17 win over Florida.

For Texas (8-1, 4-1 SEC) to reach the SEC championship game and advance to the College Football Playoff, Ewers will need to play more like he did when he shredded the Gator defense and the the shaky performances he has shown leaves him winning Oklahoma and a loss Georgia in the rearview mirror. On a day in which he was 19-for-27 and threw the football for 333 yards and five touchdowns, the most of his career, Ewers returned to the form he had shown before his oblique injury as the betting favorite to win was the Heisman Trophy.

The weekly honors poured in for Ewers. He was named the East-West Shrine Bowl Monday Morning Quarterback, earned a spot in the Davey O'Brien Great 8 for Week 11, and received honorable mention for the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award National Player of the Week.

On Tuesday, the Davey O'Brien Foundation named Ewers a semifinalist for the Davey O'Brien Award. The Maxwell Football Club included Ewers in the group of semi-finalists for the Maxwell Award.

It's quite a rebound for Ewers, who had three turnovers when the Longhorns lost to the then-fifth-ranked Bulldogs at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Oct. 19, 30 and 15. An interception at the start of a 27:24 road win against then-No. 25 Vanderbilt could have derailed Ewers' effort against the Commodores, especially after the coach Steve Sarkisian decided to pull him in favor of the redshirt freshman Arch Manning Late first half of loss to Georgia.

To his credit, Ewers came back confidently in the Oct. 26 win, completing 17 consecutive pass attempts (the third-longest streak in school history and two short of the school record set in last season's 34-30 loss). had set up). to Oklahoma) en route to a 27-for-37, 288-yard afternoon with three touchdowns.

As one of ten finalists for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, Ewers will lead Texas along the way Arkansas before a presumably wild crowd at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday (11 a.m., ABC). Ahead of the first meeting between the two former Southwest Conference rivals since the Razorbacks beat the Longhorns 40-21 in Fayetteville in 2021, Sarkisian has not publicly wavered in his confidence in or support for Ewers.

Aside from two tipped passes that resulted in interceptions against Vanderbilt, which Sarkisian viewed as bad luck, the fourth-year Texas coach likes the version of his veteran quarterback that has been on the field the last two games. Sarkisian said Ewers was “back on point.” Floridaand the numbers he counted could have been more robust if not for a few dropped passes and Ewers' exit from the game in the third quarter.

“The ball went to the right players on time,” Sarkisian said when asked after the game about how important it was to Ewers' psyche to perform like he did in the win over the Gators. “They were balls you could catch and run with.”

Sarkisian praised the 6-foot-2-inch, 210-pound Ewers for commanding the offense in the win over the Gators. Aside from Ewers' ability to quickly get the ball out of his hands and get it to his numerous weapons (Ewers' average throwing time was 2.57 seconds, according to Pro Football Focus), Sarkisian liked the rhythm, pace and determination, with which the Longhorns played offense, while he totaled 562 yards and averaged 8.8 yards per play.

Such a game would not have happened if Ewers had been nothing other than mentally locked in, ready to get behind the center and distribute the football with confidence, with a good feel for the game plan.

“I just think he comes into the game with real confidence,” Sarkisian said. “I can only imagine he has even more confidence after a game like this.”

With 56 career touchdown passes and 7,378 career passing yards, Ewers ranks fifth and sixth all-time on the Forty Acres in both categories, passing Chris Simms and James Brown in the win over the Gators.

Brown was Texas' quarterback to its last SWC title in 1995 and its first Big 12 championship in 1996. Ewers should get a chance to match Brown's unprecedented performance if he successfully builds on arguably his best game of the 2024 season against Arkansas (5-4, 3) ties -3 SEC) and carries it into the home finale against Kentucky on Nov. 23 (2:30 p.m., ABC) and on Nov. 30 in the regular-season finale against No. 14 Texas A&M.