Texas Football Recruiting: The Top 5 Position Battles after National Signing Day

Key Position Battle #1 – Texas QB

Sophomore QB Shane Buechele is suddenly in the opposite role as last year.

Highly touted high school senior. Check. Early enrollee at Texas. Check. High praise on National Signing Day. Check. New offense installed. Check. QB battle for opening day slot in September. We shall see.

The list described Shane Buechele in 2016 and now Sam Ehlinger in 2017. Last year, Buechele won the starting job over senior Tyrone Swoopes, then proved himself on opening night against Notre Dame.

Now, Ehlinger is competing for the starting job in the same situation. Texas fans believe Buechele will keep the starting QB spot when Texas opens against Maryland in September, but Ehlinger appears to be a very good fit for Tom Herman’s offense.

At the University of Houston, Herman utilized dual threat QB Gred Ward, Jr. for two seasons. Ehlinger doesn’t have Ward’s speed, but he is the #4 ranked dual-threat QB prospect in the 2017 recruiting class.

Buechele also has speed, but he seldom used it during his freshman season at Texas. Buechele was asked to quickly release the ball on the perimeter and let the WRs do the running. Perhaps in the new offense, we’ll see Buechele use more of his baseball speed and quickness. Of course, if he retains the starting job over Ehlinger.