ARLINGTON, Texas -- Quinn Ewers was all set up for a version of his own Vince Young/Keith Jackson moment.
Texas faced fourth-and-goal from the Ohio State 7-yard line, one touchdown away from tying Ohio State in the dying minutes of the national semifinal, the Cotton Bowl.
But rather than hear the echoes of Jackson saying, "Vince Young's going for the corner, and he's got it!" from UT's national title win over USC, the line was, "Ewers is sacked by his former roommate at Ohio State, who forces the fumble and returns it 83 yards for the game-securing touchdown!"
Both equally memorable, albeit for just slightly different reasons.
Ewers came to Texas to do what Young did, and lead UT to a national championship. Instead, Ewers will be remembered not for an appearance in the national title game, but rather his memorial will be coming close.
Texas' highly entertaining season ended on Friday night with a 28-14 loss to Ohio State, one win short of the national title game for the second consecutive year. The better team won, but Texas could have done this.
Before the game, Ewers said in a recorded interview with ESPN that he thought his career at Texas was over. Backup quarterback Arch Manning patiently waited as QB2, and now Texas is his.
Even if Ewers wants to return for one more season, there is no way Texas Coach Steve Sarkisian could sign off on it.
Both Ewers and his "team" constructed this timeline since he was a junior at Carroll High School, not that different from Manning. Ewers' exit to the NFL now is inevitable, even if it's not the best time.
At the Cotton Bowl against his former team, Ewers finished his collegiate career with one of the more confusing resumes in recent memory of any high profile player.
If ever there was a college player who should stick around for another season of seasoning, it's Ewers.
And, if ever there was a college player who should go to the pros now, it's Ewers.
"It sucks being on this side of things for sure; back-to-back years the game decided on one play," Ewers said in the media session after the game. "It's hard; all the work we put in. Being in the final four for the last two years and coming up short, it's tough."
Ewers deserved a better way to go out, but the final meaningful plays of his career at Texas will be that lost fumble that led to the game-ending touchdown. His final pass was intercepted.
In Texas' playoff loss last year against the University of Washington, Ewers final pass attempt at the goal line that could have tied the game was low and knocked away.
It's unfair to narrow Ewers' time at Texas down to a handful of plays that didn't go their way; in his career at Texas, he won a lot of games, including significant ones against Oklahoma, at Alabama, at Michigan, at Texas A&M, and now playoff wins over Clemson and Arizona State. He played through a lot of injuries, and he has played well.
"I don't know if he'd ever live up to the standards everybody thinks he's supposed to be," Sarkisian said after the game. "All he did was show up."
This started long before Sarkisian was hired by Texas.
Since Ewers was the long-haired kid throwing it all over the field at Carroll, he was a five-star Instagram star who was destined not just to win in college, and be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, and be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame by no later than the age of 24.
In this era of NIL, and for-pay college athletics, Ewers is part pioneer, and part guinea pig. Lost in all of this is that he's only 21 years old.
When Ewers met with the media on Wednesday afternoon he sounded like a young man who was ready to go. Not just go away from a pack of nosy reporters, but the whole thing. He is in his fourth year of college, but somehow it feels like he's been there long enough to earn his medical degree.
As much of the completely rational Texas fan base would like to run Ewers off into Lake Lady Bird, he is the best UT quarterback since Colt McCoy.
Determining how Ewers will translate to the NFL is an idiot's errand; he has been pegged as a first to a third round draft pick. He doesn't move great, and he has been injured a lot.
But he was good enough to lead Texas to a lot of big wins, and nearly to the national title game in consecutive years. He just never had his Vince Young moment.