Quinn Ewers is ready to lead the Texas Longhorns into a 2024 college football season that comes with extremely high expectations.

Not only are the Longhorns expected to compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff, they’re expected to win a championship. There are a few teams around the nation with “championship or bust” expectations and Texas happens to be one of them.

That is a lot of pressure to put on a quarterback. Add in the fact that Ewers is also looking to prove himself ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft and the season comes with a lot at stake.

Ewers has been showing off strong ability on the field that has forced his name into the discussion to potentially be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft class. He has also shown off the ability to be a star in the NIL marketplace.

Currently, On3 has ranked Ewers as the No. 6 overall NIL athlete in the nation. When it comes to college football players specifically, he’s ranked No. 5. He has been given an impressive NIL valuation of $1.7 million.

While his success to this point in his career has been great, he’s at the top of the list for players with the most to gain from having a big-time season in 2024.

ESPN NFL Draft analyst Jordan Reid made it clear that Ewers is the obvious choice for that title.

“The most to gain? I think it is Quinn Ewers without question. Honestly, just because there’s a lot of question marks about him and scouts that I talk to guess he probably would’ve gone in the second or the third round if we would have came out last year.”

Reid continued forward, revealing some of his concerns about the Texas star quarterback.

“I thought he was inconsistent for most of the season last year, but there’s some spots. They really give you a lot of hope for Quinn. … The deep ball accuracy does need to improve. I definitely think he leaves it hanging a little bit too high at times, but what I love about Quinn and what is very similar to Carson Beck this year is that they lost a ton of production on offense. … So he’s going to have to shoulder the load while he’s getting older.”

During the 2023 season, Ewers completed 69.0 percent of his pass attempts for 3,479 yards, 22 touchdowns, and six interceptions. He also scored five touchdowns on the ground.

Heading into this season, the Longhorns will need to see more consistency and bigger numbers. If he can do those two things, Texas will have a strong chance to win a National Championship.

Also, with a strong season, Ewers will set himself up to be a very high pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

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ODESSA — Texas last week began dividing $1 billion in taxpayer approved money among different types of water infrastructure and supply projects.

Most of the money will go toward low-interest loan programs to help cities and water systems upgrade drinking water systems and water conservation projects.

At least $45 million will be reserved for communities with fewer than 1,000 residents. And about $130 million will go to towns with 1,001 and 10,000 residents. The Texas Water Development Board, the agency responsible for the state’s water supply and managing this money, also set aside $20 million for high-risk projects.

Texas is losing billions of gallons of water each year due to outdated water infrastructure. Smaller rural towns that lack a taxbase are particularly behind in updating their pipes and valves. State lawmakers in 2023 asked voters to approve the $1 billion to help municipalities fix broken pipes.

While water advocates are excited for the $1 billion to begin flowing to local water systems, it will not be enough to solve the state’s water woes.

The water board said the state will have to spend $80 billion by 2070 to keep its infrastructure up-to-date, according to the 2022 water plan.

[Everything you need to know about Texas’ beleaguered water systems]

“We have a whole lot more applications that are submitted than we have capacity in any given program year to provide financial assistance,” said Kathleen Ligon, the interim executive administrator at the Water Development Board.

The water board said this week it also plans to spend up to $450 million toward existing financial assistance programs, $90 million on water loss and conservation programs, $10 million on marketing campaigns and $5 million on “educational resources and programming, data visualization tools and other initiatives” that schools can access.

The water board has already received 68 requests from cities and local water systems for this pot of money, which will be combined with existing state and federal tax dollars. The projects selected for the money will be announced in August. The board has set aside $250 million for another round of applications. It has not pushed rules on how to apply for that pool of money yet.

Communities can expect to see improvements to their systems from this new money in about a year, said Terry Fowler, executive director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network, a trade association representing public and private construction companies.

Securing workers and contractors will be a challenge for communities seeking to improve their water infrastructure, he said. Cities, counties and water districts should have a clear idea of the projects they hope to propose.

“It’s a very busy market, we have a lot of projects going on, there’s a lot of backlog,” he said.

Fowler said he hopes lawmakers find additional ways to pay for water infrastructure projects in the next legislative session, including promoting more loan based programs whose interest could go toward the Water Development Board. He said he thinks eventually, the cost of keeping up with the infrastructure will be foot by consumers.

“I think that Texans need to understand that just because of the way things are going with our water supply and infrastructure issues, your water bills are going to increase,” he said.

Big news: director and screenwriter Richard Linklater; NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher; U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-California; and Luci Baines Johnson will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!

The park fire burning in Northern California has scorched an area larger than the size of Los Angeles.

It’s put millions of people under air quality alerts, and thousands of firefighters are working around the clock to contain the flames.

To try to control the fire, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has authorized a plethora of Lone Star State resources to head to Northern California to join first responders already fighting the blaze.

“Texans understand the urgency of responding to wildfires, and our country is stronger when we come together in times of crisis,” said Abbott.

100 Texas firefighters, accompanied by 25 fire engines and other vehicles and resources, are set to join the front lines in Northern California.

The deployment of firefighters is coordinated through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a state-to-state mutual aid system.