Texas

Texas' Quinn Ewers Talks Clemson CFP Matchup, Playing in SEC, More in B/R Interview

Published

1 year ago

December 12, 2024

Texas' Quinn Ewers Talks Clemson CFP Matchup, Playing in SEC, More in B/R Interview

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Perhaps the best part of the new 12-team College Football Playoff for fans is the environments it will create with the first-round games being played on campus.

“It’s going to be awesome,” Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers told Bleacher Report. “We’ve never experienced this and DKR has never experienced this. It’s going to be rocking for a playoff game with a lot at stake. I’m just excited to get on that field again.”

While Ewers and the Longhorns surely wanted the SEC championship and first-round bye that would have come with a victory over Georgia in the conference title game, landing the No. 5 seed and a first-round game at Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium is quite the consolation prize.

It’s not a stretch to suggest Texas has one of the clearest paths to the semifinals of anyone in the field, as it will face 12th-seeded Clemson at home in the first round before a potential showdown against fourth-seeded Arizona State at the Peach Bowl in the quarterfinals.

The Peach Bowl is in Atlanta, which is far from Arizona State’s campus and right in the middle of SEC territory. That could give the Longhorns yet another advantage when it comes to the crowd.

But the focus is on Dabo Swinney’s Clemson program first.

“They’ve also been in a ton of big games, and they play really hard for their coach,” Ewers said. “They’re really well coached and disciplined players. It’s also cool I get to play against one of my really good friends from high school who went to Southlake with me. R.J. Mickens, who plays safety for them. It’s going to be a cool moment and experience with him for sure.”

Mickens is a talented playmaker at the back end of the Tigers’ defense, but Ewers joked he might have to “rub it in a little bit” if he beats his friend over the top with a deep ball during the playoff game.

Texas is the better seed and the favorite in the game, but it is Clemson coming in with momentum.

The Tigers wouldn’t have even made the CFP without shocking SMU in the ACC Championship Game with a 56-yard field goal from Nolan Hauser as time expired. That stood in stark contrast to the Longhorns, who lost in overtime to Georgia with the SEC title on the line on the same day.

Fortunately for Texas fans, head coach Steve Sarkisian’s program has been defined by its ability to bounce back this year.

“We’ve been through a lot of adversity, and I think the culture that Coach Sark has built thrives on overcoming it,” Ewers said. “It’s 10 percent what happens and 90 percent how you react to what happened. We truly live by that. Sure, we’ll get hit in the mouth a couple times, but we’re never going to go away.”

Nobody has demonstrated that resiliency inside the program better than Ewers this season.

The signal-caller missed time with an oblique injury, was temporarily benched for Arch Manning during the regular-season loss to Georgia and even had to deal with a false report suggesting he was going to sit out for the season’s stretch run to focus on the NFL draft.

What’s more, there is constant noise about the quarterback room given Manning’s status as the nephew of NFL legends Peyton and Eli Manning and as the No. 1 overall recruit of the 2023 class, per 247Sports’ composite rankings.

While the Longhorns occasionally use Manning as a change-of-pace option for running plays, this is Ewers’ team going into the playoff after he responded to the Georgia loss by spearheading a five-game winning streak with 13 touchdown passes to just three interceptions during that span.

He led his team to wins over dangerous Vanderbilt, Florida, Arkansas and Kentucky squads, as well as an important road win over rival Texas A&M in the first game between the two schools since 2011.

“I always say that the sign of the true character of a man is in the face of adversity, and that was a lot of adversity for him, a lot of adversity for us as a team coming off last week’s game,” Sarkisian said of Ewers after the Vanderbilt win following the Georgia loss in October. “I think the way he responded was kind of indicative of how we responded as a team.”

As Ewers was responding as a leader on the field, he also partnered with C4 Energy off it and even got to meet and greet with fans who entered the company’s sweepstakes in September.

“It’s been great,” he said of the partnership. “What made me want to work with them is all the sponsorships they’ve done for athletes around me. Obviously they did one with Bijan [Robinson]. Our core values also align, and their headquarters are also in Austin. It’s been awesome working with them.”

C4 Energy

Ewers said his favorite flavor is strawberry guava while highlighting that “whether I’m going to class or going to the gym to get a workout in, it gives me a boost.”

Texas needed that boost for the 2024 season, as it moved from the Big 12 to the SEC as part of a larger conference realignment shift that also included the rival Sooners joining the league.

While the Longhorns didn’t have the most challenging schedule by SEC terms since it avoided Alabama, Tennessee, Ole Miss, LSU and Missouri, they still sent a message with a 34-3 blowout win over Oklahoma and defeated Texas A&M.

Those are the types of rivalry games Texas quarterbacks are remembered for, and Ewers made sure it was his team with regional bragging rights in the first year in the new conference.

That’s not to say there weren’t welcome to the SEC moments considering the Longhorns lost to Georgia twice. But they showed improvement from the 30-15 regular-season loss to the overtime defeat in the SEC Championship Game and surely hope being battle-tested in the SEC will pay dividends against teams from other conferences in the playoff.

“I always wanted to play in the SEC and be a part of it,” Ewers said. “We got a taste of that when we went to Bama last year. It was cool to play a full SEC schedule. Man, if you don’t show up in the SEC, you’re going to get beat. And I think this year was a year that showed that. The Big 12 was fun for sure, but it’s not the same as the SEC. In the SEC, it’s all about football.”

Now he will look to deliver his new conference a national championship in the first year of the 12-team CFP field.

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Texas

Arizona State transfer RB Raleek Brown commits to Texas

Published

11 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Arizona State transfer RB Raleek Brown commits to Texas

Recruiting a running back out of the NCAA transfer portal wasn’t clean and simple after the winter window opened last week, but the Texas Longhorns were able to land a huge commitment from Arizona State transfer Raleek Brown on Thursday.

The 5’9, 196-pounder has one season of eligibility remaining.

Texas offered Brown out of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana (Calif.) when he was a top-100 prospect in the 2022 recruiting class. A consensus four-star prospect ranked as the No. 3 running back nationally in the 247Sports Composite rankings, Brown committed to home-state USC without taking any other official visits.

Brown’s career with the Trojans didn’t go as planned, however — after flashing as a freshman with 227 yards on 42 carries (5.4 avg) with three touchdowns and 16 receptions for 175 yards (10.97 avg) and three touchdowns, Brown moved to wide receiver as a sophomore and only appeared in two games, recording three catches for 16 yards and a touchdown.

Wanting to play running back again, Brown transferred to Arizona State in 2024, but was limited by a hamstring injury to 48 yards of total offense.

In 2025, though, Brown finally had his breakout season with 186 carries for 1,141 yards and four touchdowns, adding 34 receptions for 239 yards and two touchdowns. Brown forced 53 missed tackles last season, 67 percent of the total missed tackles forced by Texas running backs, and more than half of his rushing yardage came after contact.

Brown ran a sub 4.5 40-yard dash and sub-11 100-meter dash in high school and flashed that explosiveness with runs of 75 yards and 88 yards in 2025, so Brown brings the speed that the Longhorns need with 31 yards over 10 yards, as well as proven route-running and pass-catching ability.

At Arizona State, the scheme leaned towards gap runs, but Brown has the skill set to be an excellent outsize zone back if Texas head coach Steve Sarksian decides that he wants to major in that scheme once again.

With one running back secured from the portal, the question becomes whether Sarkisian and new running backs coach Jabbar Juluke want to add a big-bodied back to the roster or are comfortable with rising redshirt sophomore Christian Clark and incoming freshman Derrek Cooper handling that role.

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Texas leaders react to fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis

Published

23 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Texas leaders react to fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis

article

Texas lawmakers are lighting up social media with opinions about the fatal shooting of a woman in a car in Minneapolis by an ICE officer on Wednesday morning.

Reports from officers differ drastically from those of uninvolved eyewitnesses — the official DHS stance is self-defense against a “domestic terrorist,” while bystanders tell a story of an innocent woman trying to leave peacefully.

The political internet arena Texas is divided along party lines. Republicans generally condemn Minnesota leaders’ reactions to the shooting, while Democrats are calling for ICE to be investigated for the possible murder of a civilian by an anonymous officer.

Texas Republicans react

Among the most vocal of the Texas GOP members after Wednesday’s shooting, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Houston) was quick to question Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s dismay at the incident. Hunt posted the following to X, formerly Twitter:

“We’ve hit a breaking point in this country when an ICE officer is rammed by a lunatic in an SUV and the Mayor of Minneapolis responds not with condemnation, but by telling federal law enforcement to “get the f*ck out!”

UNITED STATES – JANUARY 22: Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Hunt, currently in the running for U.S. Senate, later reposted a Fox News video of Gov. Tim Walz’ reaction. Hunt compared Walz to Jefferson Davis before posting a full statement later in the evening that reads, in part, as follows:

“The radical left isn’t turning the temperature down, they’re cranking it to 450 degrees. When leaders normalize this kind of rhetoric, the outcome isn’t hypothetical. It’s dangerous. It’s reckless. And it puts lives at risk. If violence follows, responsibility doesn’t belong to the officers enforcing the law, it belongs to the politicians who lit the fuse.”

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz was more to the point with his criticism of Minnesota leaders, reposting a different video of Walz and referencing the recent fraud scandal within the state.

Walz in the video said Minnesota is “at war with the federal government.” Cruz replied, “Is that why y’all stole $9 billion?”

Texas Democrats react

The other side:

State Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin), another candidate for the same U.S. Senate seat as Hunt, rang in from the other side of the aisle.

“At our town hall last night, I called for a full investigation into ICE,” Talarico said in his post on X. “Today, an ICE agent shot and killed a civilian. We should haul these masked men before Congress so the world can see their faces.”

State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat from Texas and US Senate candidate, during a campaign event in Houston, Texas, US, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. Talarico is jumping into the Democratic primary for US Senate in Texas, taking on a former

Former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, yet another Senate hopeful, also expressed his ire for the actions in Minneapolis.

“As a civil rights attorney, I’m outraged by today’s ICE shooting in Minnesota that took a woman’s life,” Allred said on X. “No family should lose a loved one this way. No community should live in this fear. ICE has become a rogue agency — operating recklessly, terrorizing communities, and now taking lives. To every community terrorized by these tactics: I see you. I stand with you. And I won’t stop fighting until you’re safe.”

Minneapolis fatal ICE shooting

The backstory:

An ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning.

Federal officials are claiming the agent acted in self-defense, but Minnesota leaders disagree. The shooting happened around 9:30 a.m. in the area of East 34th Street and Portland Avenue. The woman died at the hospital.

Witnesses told FOX Local that a woman got into a red vehicle and there was one ICE agent on either side of the vehicle trying to get in, and a third ICE agent came and tried to yank on the driver’s side door. One of the agents on the driver’s side door backed away, and then opened fire, shooting three times through the driver’s side window, witnesses said. One witness said the vehicle wasn’t moving toward the agents. However, federal officials said ICE officers were “conducting targeted operations” when “rioters” blocked officers. One of the “rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.”

Officials said an ICE officer who was “fearing for his life” fired “defensive shots” to save himself and his officers, killing the woman.

A video of the shooting shows a red Honda Pilot blocking the roadway as an ICE squad approaches. When agents approach the vehicle, the Pilot attempts to drive away, moving towards an agent. When that happens, the agent fires three shots at the driver. Police say the driver was struck in the head. The agent appears to mostly avoid the vehicle as it speeds past and ends up crashing into a parked vehicle.

The Source: Information in this report comes from public statements made by Texas lawmakers on social media. Background comes from FOX 9 coverage in Minneapolis.

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Texas investigations into Charlie Kirk posts spark free-speech lawsuit

Published

1 day ago

January 7, 2026

Press Room

Texas investigations into Charlie Kirk posts spark free-speech lawsuit

A Texas teachers union has sued the state over what it said was a trampling of educators’ free speech rights when hundreds came under investigation for their comments after the killing of Charlie Kirk.

The Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers filed the federal lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency and its commissioner Mike Morath on Jan. 6, the union said. The suit claims investigations into at least 350 teachers after Kirk’s death were “unlawful” and that a letter issued by Morath to superintendents around the state targeting “reprehensible and inappropriate content on social media” prompted punishment and retaliation against teachers.

Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The cofounder of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth-focused organization, Kirk was a close ally of President Donald Trump. Shooting suspect Tyler Robinson has been charged with his murder.

After Kirk’s death, a wave of backlash came in response to online posts condemning his views or otherwise criticizing him. Right-leaning public figures and prominent social media accounts called for firings of people whose posts they deemed inappropriate.

Morath’s letter on Sept. 12 directed superintendents to report “inappropriate conduct being shared” to the Texas Education Agency’s Educator Investigations Division, which investigates teachers for allegations of misconduct, the Texas AFT said in its suit, which was reviewed by USA TODAY. The union said teachers were investigated not for speech made in classrooms, but for posts made on their personal, often private social media pages.

“In the months since, the consequences for our members have run the gamut from written reprimands and administrative leave to doxxing and termination from their jobs,” AFT Vice President and Texas Chapter President Zeph Capo said at a news conference.

The Texas Education Agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Jan. 7.

Lawsuit claims teachers were disciplined for exercising free speech

The lawsuit filed by the Texas AFT claims that teachers in public schools have a constitutionally protected right to free speech, and that their speech in their personal capacity, such as on social media, is protected. The suit claims that teachers’ rights were violated when they were investigated or faced disciplinary action for their posts about Kirk. It also alleges that the policy to report teachers for “inappropriate” content was unfairly vague.

“These teachers were disciplined solely for their speech, without any regard to whether the posts disrupted school operations in any way,” the lawsuit reads.

Teachers whose cases are mentioned in the lawsuit were kept anonymous, Capo said, to protect them from further harassment. Many teachers are fearful to express any more opinions, effectively silencing their speech, he said.

One of the teachers, who made a post described in the lawsuit as one that “simply raised questions about the circumstances of Mr. Kirk’s death and did not promote violence in any way,” was shared by a lawmaker who used it as part of an election campaign and called for the teacher’s dismissal. The high school English teacher, who has taught for 27 years, was placed on administrative leave and later fired. She settled a wrongful termination claim with the school district, the lawsuit said.

Another teacher of 16 years and a military veteran who previously won “Teacher of the Year” in his school district and made posts criticizing Kirk for his views on Black Americans is under an ongoing investigation by the state agency, the lawsuit said.

“We denounced Charlie Kirk’s assassination, we denounced violence after Uvalde. We denounce violence,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “What happened in the next few days (after Kirk’s killing), wasn’t about violence or denouncing violence, it was about muzzling the expression of constitutionally protected nonviolent speech.”

Dozens lost jobs over posts about Kirk

In the wake of Kirk’s death in September, USA TODAY counted dozens of examples of people who lost their jobs, were suspended or investigated over posts or comments they made about the conservative podcaster, including educators, lawyers, doctors, first responders and others.

They include a dean at Middle Tennessee State, Laura Sosh-Lightsy, who was fired for a social media post saying she had “zero sympathy” for Kirk; a Marine who called Kirk a “racist man” who was “popped”; and Jimmy Kimmel, whose ABC show was temporarily suspended after he made comments about Kirk.

Some educators who lost their jobs filed lawsuits alleging their free speech rights were violated. A teacher in Iowa who compared Kirk to a Nazi; a South Carolina teacher’s assistant who posted a Kirk quote and said she disagreed with him but called the death a “tragedy”; and an employee of an Indiana university who said Kirk’s death was wrong and condemned some of his beliefs all filed suits on free speech, according to reporting from the USA TODAY Network. Each case kicked up a flurry of social media outrage and calls for the educators’ firings.

In Tennessee, a tenured theater professor at Austin Peay State University was reinstated after originally being fired for comments he made online after Kirk’s killing, the Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, recently reported.

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