Texas Football: Shane Buechele injured – what does it mean?

It appeared that Tom Herman was going to escape his first Texas Football game without any significant injuries to soften the blow of his first Longhorns loss.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. Starting QB Shane Buechele suffered a shoulder injury near the end of Saturday’s loss to Maryland.

The sophomore QB Buechele played his guts out trying to rally the Longhorns from a big deficit. However, the more he was asked to pass the ball, the more he was put at risk.

According to Tom Herman in his Monday press conference, Buechele woke up in a lot of pain on Sunday morning.

When they looked at the tape to find the injury, the Texas Football coaching staff believes it was one of Buechele’s many scrambles where he threw the ball away and a Maryland defender fell on him.

As for Shane Buechele’s status Saturday against San Jose State, Coach Herman said he will not make a decision until the end of the week.

The recommendation from team doctors is that Buechele rests his shoulder. That means true freshman Sam Ehlinger will be receiving first team reps this week.

Jerrod Heard, the former QB turned WR, will be receiving additional reps while Buechele rests.

The question is, what does this all mean for a reeling Longhorns team?

Texas Football Needs to Run the Ball!

Texas needs to get a win against San Jose State on Saturday. They would also like to make sure Shane Buechele is healthy to compete against USC in Los Angeles in two weeks.

That leads to two big questions:

• Can Sam Ehlinger beat San Jose State to give Buechele additional rest? Or…
• Do the Longhorns need Buechele to beat SJSU and try to stay healthy before USC?

The key for the Longhorns to answer both questions is running the ball effectively.

Texas put way too much on Shane Buechele in Saturday’s loss to Maryland. The more he was asked to throw the ball and run the ball, the more risk for injury.

It did not help that the offensive line played poorly. In his presser, Tom Herman was not willing to say they were manhandled, but he was not pleased.

So, why did Texas continue to pass the ball instead of try to establish the run?

According to Herman, the Maryland defensive alignment dictated throwing the ball. Then, when Texas got behind by so many points, they were forced to throw the ball more than they would have liked.

From this perspective, it appeared Texas made a mistake leaning too heavily on the pass early in the game, which then put Texas in a deeper hole.

Sure, D’Onta Foreman is not standing in the backfield anymore. But, Chris Warren and Kyle Porter are capable backs who should be able to get the job done.

Then, when it was clear that Texas was not committed to the run, Maryland seized control of the game and eventually held off the Longhorns’ comeback.

Next: Texas Football Q&A with Peter Gardere

That needs to change Week 2 against San Jose State, whether it’s Shane Buechele or Sam Ehlinger at QB for Texas Football.