Texas Football: Sam Ehlinger matched Joe Burrow in this passing category

Rising senior Texas football quarterback Sam Ehlinger had one very impressive passing stat that matched up with LSU’s Joe Burrow from the last two years.

The Texas football program boasts one of the best returning starting quarterbacks in the entire country this coming season with rising senior star Sam Ehlinger. As likely the best returning quarterback in the Big 12 this coming season, Ehlinger could have a senior campaign that will take him to superstar heights.

A lot of Texas fans have expectations that Ehlinger will be a potential Heisman contender this season and take this team beyond the heights they reached during the 2018 season. While Texas had a down year, compared to general expectations, Ehlinger did post some impressive numbers individually.

Ehlinger registered a 65.2 completion percentage, 3,663 passing yards, 663 rushing yards, 4.1 yards per carry, 39 total touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. He added a 151.8 passer efficiency rating and 8.5 adjusted yards per passing attempt. Ehlinger is constantly relied upon to make plays, as he led the Big 12 in rushing touchdowns in 2018 and led in passing touchdowns last season.

There’s other more advanced numbers that Ehlinger registered last season that sat among the nation’s best. According to a post on the Twitter timeline of the Pro Football Focus College page, Ehlinger tied the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and LSU Tigers quarterback Joe Burrow with the “most big-time throws in a tight window since 2018”.

https://twitter.com/PFF_College/status/1267471464623558657

Burrow and Ehlinger each had 33 big-time tight window throws since the beginning of the 2018 season. Ehlinger sitting in that company does prove to some degree a point that a lot of college football fans would likely disagree with, that he is an accurate quarterback in tight throwing windows.

Ehlinger is actually one of the more accurate quarterbacks in the Big 12 over the course of the last two seasons. His 65.0 completion percentage about for the last two years combined matches that of Iowa State’s Brock Purdy and is much better than that of Baylor’s Charlie Brewer.

Not only did Ehlinger match up with a quarterback that registered a passer efficiency rating better than 200 (which is about as close to perfect as anyone will get), he did that with a supporting cast that didn’t come close to winning a national title. If Ehlinger can keep up that level of accuracy with a better team around him this fall, he could do great things.

Texas finished up the 2019 season with a record of 8-5 (5-4 Big 12) after beating the Utah Utes in the Alamo Bowl. That was two wins shy of the record they amassed during the 2018 season. Ehlinger and the Longhorns will be trying to reach that mark of competing in the Big 12 Championship Game again in 2020.