September 2023. Tuscaloosa. Bryant-Denny Stadium. The air? Thick. That Bama crowd? Mad hostile. Then Quinn Ewers walked in—clean mullet, iced veins, burnt white Texas drip—and proceeded to cook Nick Saban’s defense like it owed him his NIL money. Fast forward to now, just days out from the NFL Draft, and Ewers just doubled back on the scene of the crime—with a flamethrower. On Jon Gruden’s Barstool show, Ewers tossed a match on Nick Saban’s retirement tour and lit it all the way up.
We knew Ewers had a cannon, but we didn’t know he had a flamethrower for postgame interviews, too. The former Texas Longhorns QB—who barely missed the natty after a heartbreaking loss to Ohio State in the CFP semis—is still floating in Day 2 draft waters. Oblique tear here, UCL tweak there, Quinn Ewers’ body has been through it. But that one night in Tuscaloosa? That’s legacy work. And Ewers isn’t shy about it.
On April 21st episode of Jon Gruden’s QB Class, the former Super Bowl-winning head coach, Jon Gruden, pulled up the film on his Barstool show, breaking down 6 plays over 30 yards against Bama’s vaunted D. “You shredded Alabama,” Gruden said. “What was your recollection of that game?”
Quinn Ewers didn’t flinch. “We lit their a– up,” he smirked and threw a brutal uppercut to Nick Saban. “Beat ’em by double digits, first time in what—20 years? We were gettin’ after him[Nick Saban].” That ain’t just confidence. That’s venom. And he wasn’t lying. Quinn Ewers literally and totally worked Nick Saban and his defense. Texas came through when the lights were brightest, holding Bama to just 362 yards. The Horns snatched two clutch turnovers that flipped the script and kept the Tide from getting comfy. On defense, they stayed in Bama’s grill all night, throwing off the QB’s rhythm and shutting down any hopes of a hot streak.
Ewers finished 24-for-38, 349 yards, 3 TDs, zero picks. Not a hiccup. Quinn Ewers was literally torching that Nick Saban’s secondary like he was Human torch from Fantastic 4. Adonai Mitchell caught 2 of those touchdowns. Ja’Tavion Sanders led with 114 receiving yards. Xavier Worthy, the human nitro boost, caught a bomb that had even Matthew McConaughey in the booth saying, “Alright, alright, alright.” That night, Quinn Ewers became the first QB to beat Nick Saban by double digits at Saban Field at Bryant–Denny Stadium.
And on that throw to Worthy? Gruden lit up like he saw ghost tape from John Elway. “When you played Alabama, man… look at these compressed formations.I fell outta my chair,” he said. “That son [ __ ] is flying at warp speed.” Quinn Ewers broke it down like a vet. “It would’ve been back pylon here, so I knew if I put it down that zone, I’d be good. And he could go run under it. Just put it on green grass.”
That throw? 44 yards of pure art. Texas came out in a shotgun spread look, stacking receivers wide to stretch Bama’s secondary. Xavier Worthy was low-key lined up wide left, likely isolated to take advantage of a one-on-one matchup. Alabama showed a two-high safety shell, but just before the snap, one safety crept toward the box, signaling potential Cover 1 man or Cover 3. Reading the single-high safety look, Ewers launched a perfect dime down the sideline, dropping it right over the defender’s shoulder into Worthy’s hands in full stride. It was a high-level throw against tight coverage in a Saban arena. Final score: 34–24. That wasn’t just a win—it was the beginning of the end. Nick Saban stepped down the following season. And the last real dent in his dynasty? That night.
Jon Gruden compares Quinn Ewers to former Super Bowl–winning Hall of Fame QB
Barstool’s Gruden QB Class has been a wild ride this draft season, but Quinn Ewers’ episode? Different energy. Felt like a history lesson and a rap beef at the same time. Gruden dug into another wild play—a fake screen where Ewers rifled a throw to the sideline between two defenders. Gruden smiled like he knew what was coming. “Brett Favre ran that exact play,” he said. “And when I asked why he made that throw instead of the checkdown, Favre just said, ‘Because I can.’”
That’s elite comp energy. But Gruden didn’t just gas him up. He hit Ewers with the reality check too. “Don’t ab-se it,” he warned. Not gonna lie, these kinds of throws? Dangerous. You miss by six inches, and your receiver’s eating turf—or working at a construction or accounting job at Big 4. And that’s what makes Ewers fascinating. He’s got that Favre gene—confidence to thread needles nobody else even sees. But he’s not out here slinging like it’s backyard ball. Not anymore.
Ewers sat there locked in, nodding, soaking it all in. Gruden, who coached Favre, Rich Gannon, and a bunch of gunslingers, doesn’t hand out praise lightly. But with Ewers? You could tell he saw something. Jon Gurden is a big-believer of Quinn Ewers: “I think Quinn is an Iceman, I think he’s really good end of game situations. This guy can really throw the rock, man. He’s a road warrior, this guy goes to Michigan he goes to Alabama he wins big games on the road he’s got all the awkward deliveries deep ball accuracy, this guy’s a winner and a great competitor.” Gruden trailed off, but the message was clear: don’t sleep. And the truth is, the league might.
Injury questions always make GMs itchy. UCL issues are not something to play with. He missed time. His stock dipped. He ain’t Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders on the mocks, but Ewers got that rare juice. Right now, Ewers is looking like a second-round steal. The type of guy who could sit behind a vet for a year, then come in and wreck shop.
What he did to Alabama’s defense—under Saban, in their house, with the whole nation watching—that isn’t normal. And he’s still just scratching the surface. “Put it on green grass,” he said. That’s poetry in football terms. That’s what scouts saw when they ran his tape. The same eyes that watched him throw darts with a torn oblique. The same arm that fried Alabama like Waffle House hashbrowns. Don’t let the draft slot fool you. That boy is dangerous. Whether it’s Day 1 or Day 2, some lucky team’s about to find out what Alabama already knows: Quinn Ewers don’t just throw passes—he throws problems.
The post Quinn Ewers Throws Gasoline on the Nick Saban Firestorm With a Brutal Shot at Alabama appeared first on EssentiallySports.