Anonymous coaches survey: Weigman will be elite, Ewers slammed as overhyped

Texas A&M football: Anonymous coaches survey from The Athletic says Weigman "will be elite"; Longhorns' Quinn Ewers called "overhyped"

It's getting close to the summer time, and as Texas A&M football fans well know, that means it's talking season. One of the staples of this time of year, no matter the sport, is the anonymous industry survey of coaches. Outlets will often consult their coaching sources for quotes on everything ranging from rule changes, to other coaches, to players in the sport.

It is this latter category that is the subject of this article. The Athletic conducted a survey of college football coaches to ask them about the upcoming class of quarterbacks, given the hugely talented crop we just saw hit the NFL in last month's draft.

The results were illuminating. Carson Beck drew rave reviews; Shedeur Sanders was given his fair share of respect; opinions were shared on Jaxson Dart, Cam Ward, and others. It's definitely worth the read if you have a subscription—the article is paywalled.

The most striking thing to me, however, was the contrast in evaluation between Texas A&M football's Conner Weigman and Texas's Quinn Ewers. There is no shortage of hype for the latter after the year the Longhorns just had—after all, his name continues to be mentioned as a leader in preseason Heisman discussions—but Weigman remains a bit underexposed after having only started eight total games over the past two years.

Nevertheless, the Aggie signal caller was the object of high praise; a Power 4 DC who faced Weigman called him "very gifted and very tough." That same coach went on to say Conner was "the most complete quarterback I've seen in awhile... he will be elite." He closed with the quip, "He's scary."

I'm not telling Aggie fans anything they don't know here, but seeing an opposing coach lavish praise on #15 like this is nice. What was not so nice, though, was the way opposing coaches spoke about Quinn Ewers, the golden child down in Austin (one of them, at least).

Ewers was skewered as "inconsistent," "overhyped," and "average athletically." An opposing DB coach remarked that "you just see a bunch of stuff where you wonder what he's doing out there." Another coach acknowledged how good of a job Steve Sarkisian does "setting things up for him," but remarked that, even with that inherent advantage, there are points where he still "seems to be a little timid."

Ewers has returned to Austin for his fourth year of college football after his draft prospects failed to rise highly enough—it's hard to imagine him having been higher than a late day 2 pick at most this last year. Given these evaluations, it seems like he has a long way to go before he even comes close to the first-round projections that his recruitment drew.

This will be an extremely interesting storyline to follow this year. I doubt you will find many Texas fans who are lower on Ewers than they are on Weigman, but that perception seems to be out of step with the evaluation of coaches around the country. Can Ewers turn that around? Given all we've seen from him for two years now, I wouldn't bet on it.