College Football

C.J. Stroud felt 'disrespected' when Ohio State signed Quinn Ewers

Updated May. 8, 2023 7:28 p.m. ET

C.J. Stroud hadn't started a single game at Ohio State when five-star quarterback prospect Quinn Ewers arrived on campus in the summer of 2021.

Stroud, who was a highly touted prospect in the 2020 class, was expected to be the Buckeyes' staring signal-caller once Justin Fields left for the NFL. However, the former Ohio State quarterback recently revealed that he was caught off guard by Ewers' arrival after barely receiving a heads-up from the coaching staff.

Ewers, initially the top high school player in the 2022 class and one of the highest-rated players ever by 247Sports.com, decommitted from Texas and committed to Ohio State in the fall of 2020. Then, less than a month before the 2021 college football season began, Ewers surprisingly reclassified and joined Ohio State during the team's preseason camp, instantly ratcheting up the pressure on Stroud.

During a recent appearance on "The Shop" ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft, Stroud said he felt slighted by Ewers' arrival, which the Ohio State coaching staff did not tell him about until the day Ewers showed up.

"They brought him in like a week into fall camp, which is training camp for us, and I kind of felt disrespected," Stroud said. "I didn't like that. … They brought in a guy two weeks before our first game, and I thought I was the guy."

Stroud still secured the Buckeyes' starting quarterback job, though Ewers got a warm reception from the home crowd at Ohio Stadium when he took two snaps near the end of a blowout win over Michigan State that season.

But Ewers – whose initial flip from his home-state Longhorns to Ohio State reportedly came amid NIL concerns and uncertainty over then-Texas head coach Tom Herman's future – entered the transfer portal that December and eventually went back to Texas, where he was the team's starter for the 2022 season under Steve Sarkisian.

It appeared as if Ewers would be facing a similar situation to the one Stroud faced with top-ranked 2023 quarterback Arch Manning arriving at Texas, but Sarkisian confirmed after the Longhorns' spring game that Ewers has cemented himself as the team's starting quarterback.

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Stroud, meanwhile, continued to face adversity of his own over his two seasons as Ohio State's starter. He received criticism from fans as the Buckeyes lost back-to-back games to rival Michigan for the first time since 1999-2000, and slid in several mock drafts amid reports that he scored low on the S2 Cognition test during the pre-draft process.

However, Stroud ended up going No. 2 overall to the Houston Texans, right behind first overall pick Bryce Young, his longtime friend and rival from their days as star high school quarterbacks in Southern California.

"I definitely think everything I've got in my life has been earned, never given, and I pride myself in that," Stroud told "The Shop." "I think that's why I kind of have a chip on my shoulder a little bit. I have that dog in me just because I know I've been counted out multiple times."

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