On Monday evening, college football fans were shocked by a report indicating Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers was opting out of the rest of the season to prepare for the NFL Draft.
The “news” came from an Instagram post from the official 247Sports account. At first glance, it looked legit, so unsurprisingly some people ran with the info. The only issue was, the post was quickly deleted, because it was false.
Ewers responded to the post on his own Instagram story, calling it
“fake news.” Moments ago, 247Sports shared its own statement, admitting what many had suspected: they had been hacked.
“The 247Sports Instagram account was hacked earlier today with a fabricated report on Quinn Ewers. We regret any negative impact,” the statement read.
After returning to the lineup against Oklahoma on Oct. 5 following a two-game injury absence, Ewers struggled in Saturday night’s 30-15 loss to Georgia, at one point being replaced by Arch Manning.
He finished the night with 211 passing yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and two lost fumbles.
“We lost to a good team today, and I think everybody understands that,” Ewers said following the game. “Obviously not the outcome that we wanted, but there’s still a lot of football to be played.”
Despite the poor performance, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian immediately confirmed after the loss that Ewers remains the team’s starter.
“Quinn’s our starting quarterback,” Sarkisian said. “I appreciate the fact we’re fortunate enough to have a backup like Arch that could come into the game and provide a spark in some sense. At the end of the day, Quinn’s our starter. I think, like I said, we’ve got to do a better job around him. I think he would tell you he can play better, but we’ve got to coach better. Everybody’s got to be better for our offense to perform better.”
Related: Quinn Ewers Responds To ‘Report’ He Was Opting Out Of Season