Quinn Ewers Goes Viral for Apparent Trash Talk During Touchdown Pass

Texas starting quarterback Quinn Ewers effectively started his Heisman campaign on Saturday, throwing for 246 yards and three touchdowns while completing 66% of his passes.

He looked unflappable, particularly in the first half, putting the Longhorns up by three scores going into the locker room.

Texas was just outside the red zone on its second drive when Ewers faked the handoff, stepped up in the pocket and delivered a strike without planting his feet to senior tight end Gunnar Helm for a touchdown. During the throw, Ewers wasn’t even looking at Helm but toward Michigan star defensive tackle Kenneth Grant, to whom Ewers appeared to be saying something, as Will Baizer pointed out on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This is just the latest highlight from Ewers, who threw a no-look touchdown pass to Matthew Golden during the Longhorns’ 52-0 rout of Colorado State.

Related: Social Media Goes Crazy After Quinn Ewers' Touchdown Pass

Ewers is now the Heisman front-runner, with prominent sportsbooks listing the Southlake Carroll product at anywhere from +500 to +650 to win the sport's most prestigious individual award. Miami quarterback Cam Ward is a close second.

While the junior signal-caller has had some issues staying healthy across two seasons on The Forty Acres, he still threw for 3,479 yards, 22 touchdowns, and six interceptions in 12 games last season while completing 69% of his throws.

Like most of Texas’ roster, Ewers showed marked improvement from a largely underwhelming 2022 season in which he threw 2,177 yards, 15 touchdowns, and six interceptions in 10 games while completing only 58.1% of his passes. His regular season quarterback rating (QBR) also ballooned from 65.6, good for 50th nationally in 2022, to 78.7, which ranked 15th in the nation last season.

If Ewers builds on his hot start and Texas stays in contention, it is hard to imagine he will not be among the Heisman finalists in New York City come December.

Ewers and the Longhorns (2-0) now turn to a local rivalry with UTSA (1-1) on Saturday, with kickoff scheduled for 6 p.m. CT at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

Related: Quinn Ewers Named to Manning Award Watchlist