This year’s Valero Alamo Bowl between the Texas Longhorns and Colorado Buffaloes will feature dueling senior quarterbacks. Sam Ehlinger leads the 6-3 Texas team while Sam Noyer leads the 4-1 Colorado team. The battle of senior quarterbacks will get underway on Dec. 29 at the Alamodome. Noyer is dealing with a shoulder injury and is questionable for the game.
Which Sam has the edge in this battle?
QB Comparison throwing the football
| Sam Ehlinger | vs | Sam Noyer |
| 6-3 | Ht | 6-4 |
| 225 | Wt | 220 |
| Senior | Class | Senior |
| 184 | Comp | 80 |
| 306 | Att | 137 |
| 60.1 | Comp % | 58.4 |
| 2,406 | Yards | 1,000 |
| 7.9 | YPA | 7.3 |
| 25-5 | TD-INT Ratio | 6-5 |
Advantage: Sam Ehlinger
QB Comparison running the football
| Ehlinger | vs | Noyer |
| 108 | Att | 45 |
| 382 | Yards | 191 |
| 3.5 | YPA | 4.2 |
| 8 | TDs | 5 |
Advantage: Ehlinger
The Longhorns have played almost double the games that the Buffaloes have but when you break it down on a per-game basis, Ehlinger still comes out on top. In what could be the final game for Ehlinger, he could win his fourth bowl game as a Longhorn. His third as the starting quarterback. No quarterback in Texas history has won four bowl games during his tenure in Austin, Ehlinger is in line to be the first.
The four-year starter at quarterback is rare in this day and age of college football. The really good quarterbacks with professional dreams rarely stay for four years. Once they become draft eligible, they jettison for the NFL. We could see the first-ever five-year starter at quarterback in 2021, dependent upon Ehlinger’s decision.
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