Texas Football: Impact Sam Ehlinger missing spring scrimmage brings

It felt like the offense for Texas football needed quarterback Sam Ehlinger in the mix to come out on top in the first spring scrimmage, but that was wrong.

It’s a great time of year for fans of the Texas Longhorns athletic programs in general. The Texas baseball program is going full boar in a weekend series against the Xavier Musketeers and the basketball program is about to face a Big 12 foe in the TCU Horned Frogs in the midst of a good NIT run in the Semifinals at Madison Square Garden on April 2. Not to mention that the Texas football program is in the midst of spring camp, and the Orange-White Game is just two weeks out.

However, one of the key players from the Texas football program was missing due to a reported illness from the first big scrimmage of spring camp. Spring drills started a little less three weeks back, but the injury report is already starting to pile up for head Texas football coach Tom Herman. Hopefully, this is the time when injuries hit the Longhorns hard and not during the coming season itself.

Nevertheless, there’s never a good time for the injury bug to bite a rising team like the Texas football program during a pivotal off-season. Heading into spring camp, the Texas Longhorns football program appeared to have a mostly healthy roster. The spring roster was also chalked full of exciting and promising talent.

Although not all of the key players for the Horns were present for spring camp from the start, there were a lot of new faces that looked to make a big impact early on. And, all of these early enrollees and rising redshirt freshmen that are looking to get some valuable reps get the opportunity to learn from the likes of rising star junior quarterback Sam Ehlinger.

Last year Ehlinger was one of the breakthrough players in the Big 12, and one of the most potent dual-threat quarterbacks in the nation. He posted more than 40 touchdowns and was efficient enough to toss just five interceptions.

That is the type of production that a lot of other offensive players for the Horns can learn from this year. But, some of the younger players would have to wait until future scrimmages or the spring football game to see Ehlinger in action.

This doesn’t look to be any sort of long-term issue with Ehlinger, but it would be nice for backup quarterbacks Casey Thompson and Roschon Johnson to get some exposure with him playing. But, the offense did still come out on top over the defense even without the services of Ehlinger behind center.

Thanks to a solid effort from the ground game, including a touchdown run from rising senior running back Kirk Johnson, the Horns offense was great and left the team in high spirits on March 30. This is a great sign that the offense was still able to come through on the ground against this talented Texas defense, even though it has a lengthy list of injuries at the moment.

If nothing else, losing out on the exposure that Thompson and Roschon Johnson would get behind Ehlinger isn’t a huge deal. It is good to get Ehlinger as many reps as possible to continue this upward trend for his play over the past year. But, this has to inspire some level of confidence with the way the offense played without him in the mix.