Texas Football: What we learned from win over Kansas

Sam Ehlinger’s shoulder still giving him problems

Coming into this game, Texas football was hoping that sophomore quarterback Sam Ehlinger recovered enough from his shoulder sprain to be effective through the air. This was the second time that Ehlinger was coming back to start a game this fall after injuring his throwing shoulder the week before.

In the 24-10 win over the Iowa State Cyclones in Week 12, Ehlinger went down in the first half with injury due to a lingering shoulder sprain originally suffered earlier in the year. Ehlinger was able to get through most of the ladder half of the regular season without any issues pertaining to the shoulder sprain.

However, Iowa State’s physical front seven got to Ehlinger on a designed quarterback run near the end of the first half. The way Ehlinger plowed into the defender put too much pressure on his throwing shoulder that he originally sprained back in October against the Baylor Bears. That AC Shoulder Sprain hampered him again in Week 13 where he made some incoherent reads. Those reads looked to be to receivers that were open at one point, and his injury just didn’t allow him to get the ball where it needed to go.

The most significant streak that was snapped was his record breaking number of passing attempts without an interception. Ehlinger went for a school-record 308 passing attempts without tossing a single pick. He tossed two picks in this game alone. Despite those two picks, it’s pretty impressive that he got all of his interceptions on the year out of the way in just two halves of football.