Actions speak louder than words
Texas QB Ehlinger confident in his abilities
ARLINGTON, Texas – The look was planned, of course. Sam Ehlinger arrived at the Big 12 media days, the biggest star among more than three dozen players at the event, sockless – bare ankles showing between the stone-colored slacks and burnished light brown dress shoes. But it wasn’t going quite as he’d hoped.
As he navigated AT&T Stadium on Tuesday, going back and forth across the field and through the corridors to a seemingly endless list of interview stops, the Texas quarterback couldn’t help the slightest of limps.
“It’s a little uncomfortable,” Ehlinger admitted.
The actual interviews? The headlining status? Ehlinger swaggered through those. And understand: He was the biggest star, period. The crowd around his table for a breakout session Tuesday afternoon was larger than the bunch set up 15 yards away for Longhorns coach Tom Herman. Much larger.
What did it all mean?
“It kind of speaks for itself,” Texas center Zach Shackelford said, laughing.
And when Ehlinger spoke for himself, he seemed very comfortable. It’s no secret what his presence means.
The third-year starter is the undisputed leader of a Texas team that is predicted by the media covering the league to finish second in the Big 12 but believes it has a much higher ceiling. Never mind that Oklahoma is the pick to win its fifth consecutive conference title. Led by their playmaking quarterback, these Longhorns exude confidence.
“We’re confident, hungry,” Ehlinger said. “We’re not an extremely exuberant bunch that’s gonna proclaim all these things, but we’re confident. We know inside our locker room, inside our walls, what we’re capable of.”
They also know what’s been said. Or rather, Ehlinger knows what’s been said about him in the last couple of months, when first former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield called him out and then, more inexplicably, Terry Bradshaw took aim and fired, saying Ehlinger “ain’t that good.”
Mayfield, who’s from Austin, has a special place of hatred in his heart for all things Longhorns, and there’s a high school rivalry thing going on there, too, so anything he says about Ehlinger has to be discounted.
Who knows what Bradshaw really thinks, or if he has thought much at all. It was just a Louisiana Tech alumnus talking about the season opener and firing up the fans.
Or as Herman put it, referring to the criticism: “The irrelevancy of it was at an all-time high.”
But so was the inanity. Because Ehlinger is the biggest reason Texas is, well, wherever Texas is. For a change, the power program is relevant, and its quarterback is the catalyst.
Which is why it was interesting to
hear Herman keep going.
“I do know … our guys file certain things away,” Herman said. “Sam loves to play with a chip on his shoulder, and I’m sure he’ll use this to crank it up a notch.”
That’s probably bad news for Louisiana Tech in the season opener. And great news for the Longhorns. He was thrust into the spotlight two seasons ago as a true freshman and quickly earned a reputation as a charismatic leader, a bruising runner and a hardnosed player who’d do anything for the team – but sometimes did the wrong things.
That last part is no longer part of the package. Ehlinger has developed into a much better passer and, as important, as a decision-maker.
After throwing two interceptions in a loss to Maryland in the season opener in 2018, he set a Big 12 record with 308 consecutive pass attempts before throwing another pick. He led the Longhorns to a win against Oklahoma, and into the Big 12 championship game (where they lost a rematch to the Sooners), and then to a Sugar Bowl victory against Georgia. After that one, yeah, he proclaimed “Texas is ba-a-a-ck.”
But this much seems certain: Wherever Texas is, and wherever the ’Horns are heading, Ehlinger is taking them there.
“The whole team,” senior receiver Collin Johnson said, “is on the Sam Ehlinger train.”
Or as Shackelford put it: “I have no doubt in my mind when the game is on the line, he’s gonna do what he needs to do to be successful. People flock to him.”
And if his development these last couple of years is evident, and the prospects for 2019 are tantalizing, it’s hard to know how much Ehlinger might really have changed.
Someone asked him whether he would be used less this season in the running game – whether he wanted to be used less, whether he should be used less in order to prevent injury, and so on.
“Everything I say about this topic sounds really great when we’re off the field, but once I get between the white lines, my competitive spirit takes over,” he said. “It all sounds good when we’re talking about it right here, but once I strap up, when the bullets are flyin’ it’s hard to change.”
Translation, courtesy of Johnson: “Sam’s gonna continue to be Sam.”
That’s why it wasn’t completely believable when Ehlinger was asked, countless times, about those offseason criticisms, and he answered, countless times, about “completely eliminating outside noise,” saying the criticism was “in one ear and out the other.”
Referring specifically to Mayfield’s comments, he told an Oklahoma-based radio show:
“There’s hype. There’s hate. There’s a lot of different things.”
But he might as well have shrugged as he said it. And then he swaggered on, sockless, to the next stop.