College Football's Most Beleaguered QB Earns His Spurs

QUINN EWERS HAS SPENT all season trying to justify his position as the starting quarterback for the Texas Longhorns.

- JARED DIAMOND

He's felt the criticism after each of his 10 interceptions. He's been jeered every time he's missed an open receiver. He's heard the chorus of people calling for his backup, Arch Manning, to take his job.

Over the past few months, calling for Ewers to be benched has become almost as popular in Austin as going out for breakfast tacos.

But in overtime of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals on Wednesday, with the Longhorns facing a fourth-and-13 and their lofty championship aspirations hanging by the slimmest of threads, Ewers showed why Texas has continued to trust him.

Anything short of a first down would have resulted in a stunning Arizona State upset and sparked outrage over the decision to stick with Ewers. Instead, Ewers delivered the most important throw of his life, a 28-yard touchdown strike to Matthew Golden to bring the Longhorns back from the brink of disaster.

It's no exaggeration to say it may have been the most consequential play in Longhorns' history since Vince Young's fourth and - 5 touchdown run in the final seconds of Texas' national championship victory over USC nearly 20 years ago.

Then, on the very next snap from scrimmage-all of two minutes later-Ewers connected with Gunnar Helm on a 25-yard score to propel Texas to a semifinal matchup against Ohio State next week.

It was a shocking sequence that in an instant entirely reframed the Ewers-versus-Manning debate that has been raging from the moment Peyton and Eli's nephew arrived on campus last season.