Ehlinger shows week to week growth as QB & leader

Signalcaller is now fifth in school history with 48 TD passes

By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas – The Horns are humming offensively.

The catalyst, as expected, is junior quarterback Sam Ehlinger, who played a nearly perfect game Saturday in the 12th-ranked Longhorns’ easy 48-13 win over Rice in Houston.

Ehlinger was 23 of 27 passing against the Owls for 279 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 27 yards on five carries, all on scrambles when he decided it was better to run that to try to force the ball into tight coverage.

[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]

As Sam goes, so goes the Longhorns’ offense. And Sam has been going well.

That will have to continue if No. 12 Texas wants to beat powerful and talented Oklahoma State this Saturday at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in the Big 12 Conference opener for both teams.

Ehlinger has thrown for 11 touchdowns and 956 yards in three games this year and has connected for 34 touchdowns to only three interceptions over his past 16 games, a stretch in which Texas is 12-4.

He is one of only three FBS quarterbacks with at least 10 TD passes and no interceptions in 2019, joining Tua Tagovailoa of Alabama and Justin Herbert of Oregon.

“I’ve been most impressed with his control of the offense,” Texas head coach Tom Herman said Monday at his weekly media availability. “Completion percentages are great and all that stuff, but knowing where to go, getting us out of bad plays and into better ones and being on time with his throws.”

Ehlinger has not thrown an interception in his last 139 attempts, dating back to last season’s Allstate Sugar Bowl. That is the third longest stretch in Texas program history, following up his own streak of 308 passes last year and Major Applewhite’s stretch of 156 throws without a pick in 1999.

“It’s a testament to him, to be honest with you, that Sunday after the LSU game, we were, like, ‘Sam, probably wasn’t his best game,’ and you look up he’s got 400 yards of total offense and five touchdowns.”

Ehlinger’s 677 yards passing through the team’s first two games were the most of any quarterback in school history.

Over his last five quarters of action, Ehlinger has led Texas to scores on 11 of the 12 (91.7%) drives he’s directed. Nine of those drives have resulted touchdowns.

During the five quarters that stretched across the LSU and Rice games, at one point, Ehlinger led the Longhorns on nine straight scoring drives – eight of which were TDs. During that streak, Texas’ scoring drives averaged 9.7 plays and 75.7 yards per drive. All nine scoring drives covered at least 73 yards.

“We have high expectations of him – he has that of himself,” Herman said about his signalcaller. “But the thing that stands out the most is just his management of the game.”

Ehlinger, with 48, is now fifth in school history in touchdown passes, trailing only James Brown (53), Chris Simms (58), Major Applewhite (60), and Colt McCoy (112).

[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [habeabk] [/s2If]