As Texas football opened its 2024 season with a 52-0 win over Colorado State at Royal-Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon, junior quarterback Quinn Ewers attempted 27 passes.
One of those attempts stood out among the rest. In the waning seconds of the second quarter, Ewers fired an 11-yard touchdown pass to receiver Matthew Golden. Upon further review, it appeared that Ewers was looking to his right at tight end Amari Niblack as he released the football to the middle of the field in the direction of Golden.
Did Ewers attempt a no-look pass against the Rams?
“Yeah,” the third-year starting quarterback admitted during a postgame media availability.
“I was going to throw the flat, and then I saw everybody run out so I kind of just (threw a no-look pass),” Ewers then elaborated. “It’s that shortstop background, I guess.”
Ewers said he has practiced throwing passes like the one he threw to Golden. He doesn’t do it often, though, “because I don’t want to miss it and get my butt ripped.”
When asked after the game about that pass, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said he hadn’t seen the film yet. But Sarkisian added that he didn’t mind that Ewers attempted that pass or that backup quarterback Arch Manning later flipped the football to Silas Bolden for a second-half score.
“I don’t want those guys to be robots,” Sarkisian said. “They need to play the game. We try to train them, and we try to train them from a disciplined approach and I’m hard on them. They’ll be the first ones to tell you, I’m hard on them, Coach (AJ) Milwee’s hard on them. But in the end, when it’s time to play the game, play the game.”
On the receiving end of Ewers’ no-look pass was Golden, who joined the team this offseason after spending the first two years of his collegiate career at Houston. During his Texas debut, Golden also hauled in a 1-yard touchdown pass from Ewers.
“I wasn’t expecting the ball if you want me to be honest,” Golden said. “But I mean, Quinn let it go and I just know I had to get in the end zone at the end of the day.”
Ewers finished UT’s season opener with 20 completions, 260 passing yards and three touchdown tosses. After Texas grabbed a 38-0 lead in the third quarter, he was pulled from the game.
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas QB Quinn Ewers throws no-look touchdown pass
