Texas Football: Tom Herman feels QB is key to unseating OU atop Big 12

To get back atop the Texas football program and past the Oklahoma Sooners, head coach Tom Herman thinks quarterback play needs to be at its best.

For the last five years, the road to winning the Big 12 went through Norman, OK. The Oklahoma Sooners staved off efforts from teams like the Baylor Bears, TCU Horned Frogs, Oklahoma State Cowboys, and the Texas football program since 2015 to keep their reign going atop the Big 12 standings year-after-year.

But head coach of the Texas Longhorns football program Tom Herman recently spoke out on how he feels his team can get beyond Oklahoma to finally get a Big 12 crown back to Austin. He feels that one key position is the way that the Longhorns will get back to prominence in the Big 12, and thus in the entire college football landscape.

Herman answered some questions with Chuck Carlton and the SportsDay Staff with the Dallas Morning News in a piece published back on May 15. Here’s the key points on what Herman outlined regarding Oklahoma’s reign atop the Big 12 in the last five years and how Texas can get back to the top of the conference.

"To answer the first part of your question, what’s it going to take? They’ve had really good teams, they’ve got really good coaches. They’ve had two No. 1 picks at quarterback, back to back years as well as a second-round pick this past year. We all know how important that position is in all levels of football. They’ve done a phenomenal job of recruiting and developing that position.We beat them in the regular season. Couldn’t pull off the second part of that, which was beating them in the conference championship game. There’s no moral victories at Texas especially when it comes to that school, but considering where we started, we’ve played them admirably and beaten them once in three years.So what’s it going to take? It’s going to take a continued effort to recruit elite talent and to develop that talent and then hopefully one of these days they’ll stop having first- and second-round draft picks at quarterback. But we’ve played draft picks, that’s certainly not an excuse at all, we’ve played draft picks at quarterback damn near every week, but those three guys they’ve had in the last three years were special — really, really special."

Herman points out specifically that the success that Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley had with the likes of Heisman winning quarterbacks Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield was key to winning the Big 12 in so many consecutive years. He also gives credit to the former Alabama Crimson Tide graduate transfer and 2019 Heisman contender Jalen Hurts for still guiding the Sooners to the College Football Playoff last season.

This point from Herman parlays into the importance for rising senior star quarterback Sam Ehlinger to have his best season of his college career this fall (if nothing happens to it in terms of being pushed back or cancelled due to the novel coronavirus pandemic). Ehlinger did have two noteworthy seasons in the last two years, where he compiled more than 75 total touchdowns and just 15 interceptions.

However, Texas is going to have to do better than posting a record of 8-5 (5-4 Big 12) like they did last season in Herman’s third year on campus. That result that fell well below expectations saw Herman turnover much of his coaching staff, including both coordinators Todd Orlando and Tim Beck.

Texas is supposed to face Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry game on Oct. 10 at the Texas State Fairgrounds in Dallas. Ehlinger would be likely set to face the young former five-star recruit and first-year Oklahoma starting quarterback Spencer Rattler if that game holds to the same date as originally scheduled.