Texas Football: 5 takeaways from Big 12 Media Days

4. Tunnel vision in a good sense

The gold mine for the national media in talking with Texas football representatives at Big 12 Media Days was going to be with all the feedback and criticism that Ehlinger drew since the outset of the offseason. Between the Oklahoma Sooners 2018 Heisman winning quarterback Kyler Murray trash talking last December, up to Terry Bradshaw criticizing him to his Louisiana Tech alumni base, Ehlinger had a lot of potential distractions.

There wasn’t a single other Big 12 player that was at media days that had the same laser-like focus as Ehlinger this week. He shrugged off any question that came his way that could bring a negative connotation with the knee-jerk obvious answer.

Ehlinger even stood strong on a question he got about if he “likes” former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield. He sort of deflected the question by saying that he “respects” him. He didn’t really have any slander or criticism to fire back at Baker. That’s a real sign of respect, focus, and confidence, from the leader of this Texas offense.

The entire group of representatives for the Longhorns at Big 12 Media Days and Herman had their intentions in the right place and handled all of the outlets there very well. Texas instilled the right sense of confidence and enthusiasm in the local media and fan base at least. This is a different feeling than we had heading into the 2018 campaign.