MORGANTOWN — To tell the short end of the story, WVU coaches and players are prepared to face either Texas quarterback Hudson Card or Quinn Ewers on Saturday.
Unless Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian were to somehow roll out Vince Young behind center, the Mountaineers say they will not be caught off guard.
“Believe me, I’m already watching film on both of them,” WVU linebacker Jared Bartlett said. “When you’re preparing to play, you’ve got to study both quarterbacks. You’ve got to study all possible situations that could happen.”
WVU head coach Neal Brown tried to sum up his thoughts on the Texas duo quickly, knowing full well that any good old-fashioned quarterback controversy generally takes on a life of its own.
“Whoever plays, they’re going to play at a high level at quarterback,” Brown said. “Whoever lines up at quarterback, they’re going to be good. I think it’s pretty simple, so if you all ask questions there, that’s how I’m going to answer it.”
Yet it’s never that easy. Not at Texas, or many other Power Five schools for that matter.
Concerning the Longhorns (2-2, 0-1 Big 12), Texas has two good ones in both Ewers and Card.
Both were highly recruited out of high school, with Ewers making headlines last year in signing an NIL deal worth more than $1 million while he was a freshman at Ohio State.
Ewers was named the starter to begin this season after transferring, but injured his shoulder against Alabama. Enter Card, who has thrown for 438 yards and three touchdowns the last two weeks with Ewers watching from the sideline.
Ewers was dressed in pads last week in the Longhorns’ 37-34 overtime loss to Texas Tech and was listed as a co-starter on the team’s depth chart prior to the game.
“I think a lot of people would like to have their situation,” Brown joked. “I’m not going to shed any tears for them.”
Listing both players as the starter is the cat-and-mouse game coaches play with the media and the opposing team, a way of never tipping their hand, so to speak.
It’s a game, some would argue, that has been turned into an art form, as coaches would seemingly rather give out their credit card info before telling anyone who was going to start at quarterback.
Not that Brown was 100% percent behind that analogy, but his quick smile to the question shows there’s some truth to it.
“I don’t know. I think people probably give us too much credit,” he answered.
It’s also a game some will go to great lengths to uncover.
Remember the QB controversy at Oklahoma last season between Caleb Williams and Spencer Rattler?
That one saw a reporter from the Oklahoma student newspaper secretly watch practice from an adjacent building to see which quarterback was working with the first team, while also outraging former O.U. coach Lincoln Riley once the news was reported.
So, yeah, who plays quarterback is kind of a big deal to a lot of people.
“Texas is as well-covered as any team in the country,” Brown said. “I don’t know. You’d have to ask Sark. I bet he has a hard time holding secrets. That’s my guess. I don’t know that.”
In either case, the Mountaineers (2-2, 0-1) see similar styles with both Ewers and Card. Both are strong throwers from the pocket. Card can take off at times and scramble for a big gain.
“Regardless of who plays, we’re going to have to perform the same way,” Bartlett said. “Quinn Ewers is talented. I’m not sure of his injury situation. If he plays, he plays. If Card plays, our game plan is not going to change.”
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