Texas Football: Sam Ehlinger set for his best performance of the season

In a huge matchup for a Texas football team trending up now, Sam Ehlinger is key against the Kansas State Wildcats in Week 5.

It’s easy to say that Texas football is just absolutely going to run over the Kansas State Wildcats in Week 5. On paper, the Longhorns do look to have a massive edge over Kansas State at this point in the regular season. Yet, the history of this series indicates something different since the Wildcats are generally a thorn in the side of the Horns.

The main difference that could start a new trend for the Texas football program in this series is the presence of head coach Tom Herman and sophomore quarterback Sam Ehlinger. Last year was the first time both Herman and Ehlinger got to face Bill Snyder and the Wildcats in the burnt orange. That resulted in a pretty surprising, but thrilling, overtime home victory for the Horns.

Ehlinger posted career highs in passing attempts, completions, passing yards, and rushing yards, all in that game against Kansas State last season. Even in his three nice efforts in the past three weeks that all resulted in Texas wins, Ehlinger wasn’t able to post numbers along those lines.

What Ehlinger was able to do in the past three weeks was take care of the football better than at any point during his freshman campaign. Keep that up in combination with what he did against Kansas State last season, and this could be a special performance for Ehlinger.

Here’s a look at what Sam Ehlinger could do for Texas football against the Kansas State Wildcats in Week 5 and a realistic outcome for the Longhorns altogether.

It might be a good thing that Herman isn’t giving Ehlinger a role as big this year compared to what he did against Kansas State last year. Putting the date of each game on Ehlinger’s arm is still not the best option for the Horns, despite his clear improvement in the passing game.

Expect Ehlinger to play a similar role for the Texas offense as to what he did last week against the TCU Horned Frogs. Gary Patterson and the Frogs got a steady dose of Ehlinger’s arm and the threat of his legs. Ehlinger’s ability to use his legs were also used at a timely point in the game to put away TCU.

However, the numbers that Ehlinger provided to Texas over the past three games is exactly what this team needs out of him at this moment. Totaling three touchdowns and no interceptions might not happen for the fourth consecutive week, but we can hope. Kansas State is a stingy defense in terms of drawing turnovers usually, but it doesn’t appear to be that way this fall.

If Ehlinger does manage to rack up 50 passing attempts, he might go over the mark of three total touchdowns in this outing. That’s also unlikely, and wouldn’t be in favor of the fans or coaching staff. So, two or three passing touchdowns and at least 275 total yards would be fantastic production from Ehlinger provided he can take care of the football.