Texas Football: 3 most disappointing Longhorns QB’s since 2010

3. Shane Buechele

There’s no doubt that most Longhorns fans would view this as the most controversial selection on the list of disappointing quarterbacks from the previous decade. But this list is defined by three major factors: recruiting ranking, hype early in the quarterback’s college career, and end result with the Longhorns.

Still, former Texas starting signal caller Shane Buechele is beloved by nearly all fans on the Forty Acres and with good reason.

Buechele was a good locker room presence, and a fan favorite for a good while in Austin. He did wind up transferring away from the Longhorns prior to the start of last season, when Ehlinger had solidified the starting role.

You can’t really blame Buechele for wanting to find a better opportunity to start for the rest of his college eligible years. He landed with head coach Sonny Dykes and the SMU Mustangs, and found success right away. SMU has their best season in a really long time in 2019, and Buechele had his most productive year yet in college.

During his redshirt junior season at SMU, Buechele tallied up just shy of 4,000 passing yards, 36 total touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. He posted career highs as a starting quarterback in adjusted yards per passing attempt, passing and total touchdowns, and passing and total yards.

But what made the tenure of the former blue chip four-star quarterback recruit and Arlington, TX, native disappointing for the Longhorns is the downturn his run had in Austin following a hot start to his freshman season. Buechele came out of the gates flying as a true freshman, but didn’t finish the 2016 season on a high note (21 passing touchdowns/11 interceptions that year).

Each of his last three starts in 2016 resulted in losses, and he had two passing touchdowns compared to five picks in that trio of games. Buechele continued to see his number of starts, and his overall production drop until he transferred to SMU.