Anonymous coaches bashing Texas Longhorns QB Quinn Ewers is unwarranted | Bohls

While I got ya, here are nine things and one crazy prediction:

From this viewpoint, Quinn Ewers is a top quarterback

1. Back off: Looks like the college football offseason has shaped up into a season of bashing, especially when it comes to lightning rod Quinn Ewers. Texas' senior quarterback has had to battle immense scrutiny as the heretofore No. 1 recruit in his class, an Ohio State transfer who switched to Texas and had to start immediately, a quarterback in one of college football’s biggest fish bowls and a player who has to fight even bigger expectations in 2024 with the specter of Arch Manning pressing for playing time as a backdrop. Now The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman writes a highly critical story wherein he quotes anonymous coaches ripping Ewers. “There are times, he just seems to be a little timid,” one coach said. A Big 12 defensive coordinator, who no longer has to face Ewers, said the quarterback has improved a great deal, but “he’s not anywhere near as athletic nor the playmaker (Patrick) Mahomes is or has that kind of presence” and adds that’s not Ewers’ fault. No kidding. … Here’s a not-so-anonymous critique of Ewers. He has elevated the Texas program to heights it hasn’t seen since Colt McCoy in 2009 and deserves nothing but praise and credit for doing so with class and humility.

Potential NCAA settlement on NIL lawsuit looms large

2. Check the couch cushions: Armageddon for college athletics — at least a portion of it — is fast approaching. Not all of it, but certainly the lower-profile Power Four schools, probably all Group of Five programs, non-revenue sports across the board and maybe even women’s sports unless they remain protected by Title IX. This major shakeup in how schools do business will be extreme when the NCAA prepares to consider a settlement as early as Thursday in the House vs. NCAA lawsuit over back pay for Division I athletes who were restricted from making money off their name, image and likeness. The NCAA could owe up to $2.7 billion in lost earnings, and that means Power Four conference schools will be scrambling to recoup lost revenue distribution from the NCAA and to grapple with a potentially new revenue-sharing model that costs individual schools up to $20 million a year. That money would come from schools’ sponsorships, media rights and ticket sales. Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte told me he’s unsure of the tab for the Longhorns and is taking a wait-and-see attitude. “I’ve got to read all the material,” he said Monday. “It’s an evolving time, an evolving landscape for college athletics. It’s like a bunch of tectonic plates. Lots of moving and shifting. We talk all the time that you either adapt or die. It’s a stressful time.” … For Group of Five schools, it could be a death knell for some and a thinning of the herd wanting to hang on to big-time athletics and bigger money because Yahoo Sports reported that more than half of those smaller programs generate less than $40 million a year. The separation between the haves and have-nots only figures to expand, perhaps to the point the have-nots will play not in all of their sports. The NCAA could fight it and face a trial in January that could risk doubling its penalty.

More: Texas pitcher Lebarron Johnson Jr. shows off his stuff — and his promise | Bohls

Texas vs. Texas A&M: where's the hate?

3. Longhorns vs. Aggies: A couple of Aggies eagerly await the renewal of the football rivalry with Texas this November. But is there also hate to embrace, a mantra Steve Sarkisian and his Longhorns so publicly endorsed during their final run through the Big 12? Probably. Or maybe not. New Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts, fresh off a long tenure at Nebraska as a player and administrator, told me he’s never really been one to work up a big case of hatred for a big rival. “I was privileged to be part of one of the greatest rivalries of all time, Nebraska and Oklahoma,” said the former Butkus Award-winning linebacker. “It probably stems from the way I was taught by Tom Osborne, who said having hate takes energy away from your ability to be successful. I didn’t hate Oklahoma. Now I hated losing to them. But I respected them. I think A&M and Texas has had a great rivalry and are going to evolve into the standard of what a rivalry looks like. I wasn’t driven to hate. Now the game will elicit a lot of emotion.” … A&M's new coach, Mike Elko, understands the depth of those emotions, too. “It means an awful lot in this state," Elko said. "It will be an unbelievable atmosphere when those two get back on the field. It will certainly be a huge moment, but there’s a lot between now and then.” … Alberts also offered his apparent support for the SEC to move to nine conference games over the eight-game model that will be in place in the 2024 and 2025 seasons. “We’ve got a lot to work through with our business relationship with our TV partner,” Alberts said, “but the reality is if you’re moving forward, I’m anticipating playing more conference games than less if we’re going to bring the value necessary for our TV partners to generate the revenue they want. I’d say more conference games than less probably makes more sense.”

More: Texas baseball certainly won't host a regional without Big 12 tourney win | Golden

This was the year for Big 12 co-MVPs

4. The 1 and 1A player of the year: Max Belyeu was named the Big 12's player of the year and deservedly so. But it just as easily could have been his teammate Jalin Flores. Here’s a case for Belyeu as the rightful conference player of the year because he was hitting higher than Flores and has 11 homers to Flores’ six in league play. But I think Flores has had one of if not the best seasons ever for a Longhorns shortstop, considering his tremendous power with 17 homers, great range and arm, slick fielding with only eight errors and the fact that he plays a more demanding position. Spike Owen’s always been the standard for the best shortstop ever at Texas, but he didn’t have the bat Flores did. Owen hit .338 as the Southwest Conference player of the year in 1981, but he hit only four career homers.

Texas eyes Stanford in Director's Cup race

5. The scoreboard never lies: Texas still sits in second place in the Director’s Cup standings, some 312 points behind perennial winner Stanford, but Del Conte still thinks the Longhorns could catch the Cardinal and win that race for the best overall athletic program for the third time in the last four years. “We’re right in the thick of it,” Del Conte told me this week. “A lot of things have to go our way, but we’ve got more than a chance.” … Interestingly enough, No. 2 Texas and No. 6 Tennessee are the only two “SEC schools,” if you’re looking ahead in the top 10. … Also, should Stanford and Texas both win their softball super regionals against LSU and Texas A&M respectively this week, they will meet in the first game in the Women’s College World Series. First, Texas must deal with the Aggies, who will face a hostile crowd at McCombs Fields. A&M is entitled to 100 tickets in the super regional at McCombs, which seats 1,812 if you count the bleachers. … The Longhorns are rolling to an unprecedented level in their farewell season to the Big 12 and now, with rowing, have claimed a staggering 15 conference regular-season or tournament championships, a league record. Oklahoma is second with four league titles. “We had a coaches’ meeting last summer,” Del Conte said, “and we set out a goal to win all 20 (sports). But 15 is an all-time record. That is spectacular.”

Scottie Scheffler remains the same under duress

6. Exhibit A: Say what you want about Scottie Scheffler’s arrest and charges, including a second-degree felony for assaulting a police officer, but he handled it well with class and humility. I can’t think of too many golfers or athletes who would be as transparent and open as the world’s No. 1 golfer, who gave several interviews after the arrest.

What channel is the NFL on? 24/7

7. Everywhere all the time: You cannot escape the NFL. Do not even try. Beginning next year, league games will be on seven networks. Yes, seven: NBC, CBS, Fox, ESPN, Amazon Prime, Peacock and, now with two games on Christmas Day, Netflix. That last item reveals the Shield is taking on the NBA on that most sacred of holidays. Yes, the most ubiquitous sport in America owns our eyeballs. And Front Office Sports learned that if you wanted to watch every single game this season, you would have to shell out the tidy sum of almost $1,000. How many of you are down for that?

Whatever happened to ...

8. Scattershooting: While wondering whatever happened to former ESPN analyst and Georgia All-America linebacker David Pollack.

Meanwhile, from the greatest seat in the world ...

9. On the couch: The true-story movie “Dark Waters” never got the attention or accolades when it came out in 2019, but Mark Ruffalo as a dogged lawyer does a standup job in this very important, critical look at DuPont’s chemical malfeasance that let to deaths and illnesses in West Virginia. Gave it 8 ducks.

Sooner or later, Oklahoma

Crazy prediction: Oklahoma softball doesn't make the Women's College World Series.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Anonymous bashing of Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers unwarranted