Ohio State losing Quinn Ewers a week after the Michigan loss is bad optics

Ohio State has lost quarterback Quinn Ewers after their loss to Michigan.

The Ohio State Buckeyes are looking a little bit beat up following the loss to Michigan. While OSU will still get a nice bowl game out of their season, having to sit back and watch Michigan of all teams play in the Big 10 title game because they did something not done in nearly a decade. Beat Ohio State.

That on its own would be bad enough but they say terrible news comes in three’s and the second piece of awful news has just dropped on OSU; star freshmen quarterback, Quinn Ewers, is done as a Buckeye.

ESPN reported on Ewers entering the transfer portal on Friday. The former Buckeye was the top-ranked recruit in 2021 and was one of college football’s biggest names. A claim that was made clear with his $1 million in likeness and merchandise deals he signed.

While no reason was stated, it can be assumed that Ewers didn’t want to wait for CJ Stroud to get done at OSU and move on to the NFL. The former high school star had originally enrolled at his home state’s University of Texas at Austin (aka Texas) before moving on to OSU.

It’s possible he returns to Texas or follows the new head coaches to their programs like Lincoln Riley to USC or Brian Kelly to LSU.

Quinn Ewers transferring after Michigan loss bad optics

Younger Ohio State fans may not remember this but Ohio State wasn’t the perpetual power that it is these days. Not long ago, double-digit win seasons were rare. From 1955 to 2001 the team only had 11.  Since 2002, they had 17 double-digit win seasons.

Programs rise, programs fall and Ohio State has done well to stave off fall apart. Not many teams can go through four head coaches in about 20 years and only have one losing season between all of them.

Now, OSU is not going to fall apart any time soon, but losing the top prospect in your recruiting class right after losing to Michigan raises some questions. No one should suggest Ewers transferred out because OSU lost just once to Michigan since he was nine. That won’t stop some people from suggesting otherwise.

After all, if someone sneezes incorrectly, it could become headline news for the next three days. The world is a weird place these days. The optics aren’t great, losing Ewers and all, and that may hurt recruiting to a degree.

After all, if one highly touted prospect wanted out, who’s to say another won’t? Now, players leave schools all the time. Players have left OSU before, hello Joe Burrow, but to lose a major name just four months after he enrolls? That’s going to be a bad look for a bit.

The Buckeyes should be fine, Ryan Day is a good coach and a good recruiter, plus Ohio State sells itself; but every great team eventually bottoms out. Miami, USC, Michigan, Notre Dame, all of the greats eventually skid out for some time.

Is this the end of the Buckeye’s current run of dominance or just a blip on the radar? Only time will tell.