Ohio State football quarterback Quinn Ewers to enter NCAA transfer portal

Quinn Ewers is leaving Ohio State after four months.

A former top-ranked quarterback recruit from suburban Dallas who graduated a year early from high school to join the Buckeyes in August, Ewers will put his name in the NCAA transfer portal.

A team spokesman confirmed Ewers is not yet in the portal, but he intends to transfer to another school.

His planned departure was first reported by Yahoo! Sports, which said Ewers will look at Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech as possible destinations.

Ewers did not attempt a pass as a freshman at Ohio State and only made his debut against Michigan State last month. Appearing with little more than a minute left in the rout of the Spartans, he handed the ball off twice on two snaps.

Since the regular season ended last Saturday, the Buckeyes have seen the bottom half of their depth chart at quarterback bolt.

On the day after a 42-27 loss at Michigan, redshirt freshman Jack Miller announced he would transfer elsewhere.

But for now, movement at the position is not expected to continue.

Freshman Kyle McCord, who was the backup behind C.J. Stroud and started against Akron on Sept. 25 when Stroud sat out to rest his injured throwing shoulder, plans to remain with the Buckeyes, according to a person familiar with his plans.

McCord and Miller competed for the starting spot in preseason training camp before Stroud took the job and put together an impressive statistical season.

On Wednesday, he was named the Big Ten's offensive player of the year, quarterback of the year and freshman of the year, the first-ever to sweep all three awards.

This will be only the second offseason in which players are given a one-time transfer exception, allowed to transfer once as an undergraduate and gain immediate eligibility. Before 2020, undergraduate transfers were required to sit out a season.

The circumstances behind Ewers' arrival in Columbus were a bit unique.

Prohibited from profiting off his name, image and likeness as a senior at Carroll High School in Southlake, Texas, under a state law that bars prep players from making money through endorsement deals, he was motivated to reclassify and join the Buckeyes ahead of schedule.

College athletes became eligible to benefit financially from their likeness in July, allowing Ewers to pursue financial opportunities once he enrolled at Ohio State.

He immediately partnered with Holy Kombucha, a beverage company based in Dallas, and Ricart Automotive, a car dealership in Columbus, along with other especially lucrative deals.

In late August, it was reported he reached an agreement with GT Sports Marketing to sign autographs for $1.4 million.

His sudden arrival, though, made it difficult for him to compete for playing time.

It took him until October before he first traveled with the team, and coach Ryan Day remarked midway through the season that it would be "a little while" before he was ready to see significant playing time, citing a need for Ewers to gain more reps in practices ahead of the bowl game and in early 2022.

He did move up to third on the depth chart last month when Miller was suspended after he was arrested and charged with operating a vehicle while impaired.

Ewers, widely recognized for his bleach-blonde mullet and strong arm, was an especially hyped high school prospect. Before he reclassified, he was the top-ranked quarterback recruit in the 2022 recruiting class and was only the sixth player to receive a composite rating of 1.000 from 247Sports.

Before he committed to Ohio State late last year, Ewers was planning to head to Texas, but de-committed after the Longhorns fired then-coach Tom Herman.

Unless they pick up a transfer, the Buckeyes are on track to have three scholarship quarterbacks on their roster next season between Stroud and McCord, as well as Devin Brown, a four-star from Draper, Utah, who verbally committed to Ohio State on Wednesday.

Over the last two seasons, they've carried four scholarship quarterbacks, a preference for Day, but they had as few as three quarterbacks on scholarship in 2019 when Chris Chugunov and Gunnar Hoak sat behind Justin Fields.

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @joeyrkaufman.