Is TXHSFB in panic mode with Ewers decision? Not so fast.

By Jim Klenke

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Southlake Carroll quarterback Quinn Ewers dropped a bombshell on Texas high school football on Monday when he announced that he would forego his senior season and enroll at Ohio State early. 

Without question, it’s a blow to high school football. Ewers is perhaps the most hyped quarterback recruit out of the state since Vince Young – the guy who won the state’s lone FBS national championship in the past 50 years with his run to the corner of the end zone. 

Ewers led powerhouse Southlake Carroll to the 6A-DI state championship game last year, and was a key reason the Dragons ranked No. 3 in our preseason rankings. With Ewers gone, high school football loses its biggest star in years. 

The newly-minted Ohio State quarterback becomes the second member of the DCTF Super Team to opt out of high school football, joining Klein Cain running back Jaydon Blue. But while the decision is disappointing, there’s no need for panic at high school football’s latest boogeyman. 

Don’t expect Ewers’ decision to become a trend. His story is one of one. 

Ewers is the most hyped quarterback recruit in college football since Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields duked for the top spot in the class of 2018. If his perfect 247Sports composite rating holds, he will become just the sixth player to ever reach that level, and the only quarterback besides Vince. 

Because of that convergence – once-in-a-generation talent at the most important position in sports heading with a shot at playing time at a College Football Playoff contender – Ewers might be able to command seven figures on the open market. Getting on the ground floor with a player who some think could be the next Trevor Lawrence is a big deal. 

But let’s be perfectly clear: That’s the bar. For any player who doesn’t check every one of those boxes, reclassification is simply not worth it. It means leaving home early and being years of development behind several in your college position room. Additionally, it needlessly leaves your body less developed than other members of your own recruiting class. There isn’t a pot of gold waiting for most players when they enroll. Most recruits aren’t Quinn Ewers. 

Perhaps just as important from a college perspective, coaches have no interest in this for one simple reason: Why start an eligibility clock early? 

The reason you see players enroll at colleges for the spring in time for practices is exactly for that reason. It allows players to develop and learn the system without having to sacrifice any of their valuable eligibility. For Ewers, giving him a chance to get on the field this fall makes sense. For others, less so. 

Think of a player like fellow Buckeye Donovan Jackson, an offensive lineman from Bellaire Episcopal in the Class of 2022. Jackson is a great player and Ohio State is thrilled to have him. At the same time, why would Ryan Day want Jackson to start burning his eligibility at 17 and maybe have him gone by 20? There’s little upside, not even touching the negative feedback Day would get from angry high school coaches for encouraging that. 

Additionally, the top programs having to make educated guesses on when to allot scholarships for players will be a headache that they don’t want to deal with. Finding one extra initial scholarship for Ewers is easy enough. If five such players decided at the last minute to reclassify, Ohio State’s scholarship chart would careen off course. 

Sure, there will be other players who see Ewers and make a similar decision. That’s their right, and we sincerely hope it works out for them. That said, we are not about to reach some new reality of high school players consistently leaving high school football. The cost-benefit analysis on both the player and team sides just doesn’t make enough sense. 

One last thing. The stories of Ewers and Blue are clearly disappointing for Texas high school football, but let’s not give these moments more power than they deserve. There are more than 1,400 high schools and 50,000 high school players in Texas every year fighting for a state championship. These guys are really good, but having Ewers – and other D-I football players – wasn’t enough to win a team championship. 

At its core, Texas high school football is about teams. A number of players from Westlake, Denton Ryan, Katy, Aledo won’t sniff the next level. Did that really matter when Todd Dodge held up the trophy? If Southlake Carroll overachieves, that will still mean plenty to that fan base. 

Two very good players leaving high school football still leaves tens of thousands of awesome high school players committed to competing for state championships. Ewers and Blue making the decisions that are right for them doesn’t suddenly destroy that. 

Every few years, there’s a new panic about the future of Texas high school football – yet it’s still thriving. Expect the threat of reclassification to be just another speed bump soon to be in the sport’s rearview mirror. 

 

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