With spring practices for college football coming up, some schools have already started, ESPN ranked their top ten quarterbacks for the upcoming season. (Link requires subscription)
A lot has been made of Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger coming into his senior season in Austin. After forgoing the NFL Draft and deciding to return after receiving feed back from the NFL Advisory Board, the Austin native is poised to chase a Big 12 championship. The Longhorns spent an entire decade underperforming by their own standards, a new-look staff is ready to make their run.
On the list from ESPN there were two quarterbacks who hail from the Big 12 Conference, Sam Ehlinger was the top name listed of the two.
While Texas football isn’t quite back — as some thought it would be — Ehlinger has improved in every season of his collegiate career and will very likely give the program the quarterback play they need to get back to elite status.
After a subpar true freshman campaign in 2017 that resulted in a 66.4 overall grade, Ehlinger posted an 85.7 grade in 2018 and a 90.2 grade in 2019. He ranked among the 10 most valuable college football players in each of the past two seasons, while his two-year overall grade from 2018-19 ranks behind only Burrow, Lawrence, Tagovailoa and Nathan Rourke.
Ehlinger ranked number six with Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence coming in at the top followed by Ohio State’s Justin Fields. Brock Purdy of Iowa State was the only other Big 12 quarterback who made the cut. With everyone zoned in on the Texas Longhorns and Ehlinger, the team has a lot of pressure to perform. Tom Herman is also feeling the heat which caused him to shuffle the cards with his staff.