The College Football Playoff quarterfinals featured plenty of exciting matchups on Wednesday Texas Longhorns survived a rough fourth quarter and beat it Arizona State Sun Devils in double overtime. Meanwhile, the Ohio State Buckeyes completely dominated the Oregon Ducks. Now fourth-seeded Texas and sixth-seeded Ohio State are set to meet in the Cotton Bowl semifinals.
On Thursday's episode of “First Take,” the Longhorns arrived, and host Stephen A. Smith stated that he doesn't feel the Longhorns have reached the national championship game because of their tough matchup against the Buckeyes.
“They were sloppy. As terrible as (ASU running back Cam Skattebo) is, he's just a dude and he gave you nightmares. … Based on the sloppiness I've seen from Texas, I'm afraid they're going to get blown out by Ohio State,” Smith said.
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According to DraftKings Sportsbook, the Buckeyes (12-2) are six-point favorites with more than a week to go before the Jan. 10 Cotton Bowl.
How did Quinn Ewers fare in the College Football Playoff against Arizona State?
While there were some questions about how Quinn Ewers fared in the big game for the Texas Longhorns, he stepped up and finished 20-of-30 (66.7%) for 322 yards with three touchdowns and one catch while adding a rushing touchdown.
There were some head-scratching decisions, such as an intercepted pass, as well as some play calls. However, Ewers is hard to call on plays. On “The Colin Cowherd Podcast,” former NFL scout John Middlekauff said he wasn't too impressed with the trip, even though the box score looked good.
“This is a national championship roster without a national championship quarterback,” Middlekauff said.
The game-breaking Ewers made mistakes, but right now all Texas (13-2) needs to do is survive and advance.
Edited by Joseph Schiefelbein