Phil Steele ranks Texas football QB unit among top 3 for 2020

The national Phil Steele magazine for the 2020 season had a prestigious take on the quarterbacks for the Texas football program.

One of the famed national magazine that previews the college football season to be year in and year out, Phil Steele, had plenty of noteworthy takes and projections concerning the Texas football program ahead of the 2020 campaign. In this round of the Phil Steele college football preview magazine, the top quarterback units in the entire country were ranked out. And the Longhorns found themselves in a prominent spot in the top three.

Phil Steele slotted the Longhorns quarterback room as the third best behind the likes of the Ohio State Buckeyes and Clemson Tigers. This ranking does hold some truth to it since Clemson and Ohio State would have to be considered the two best in the country by a good margin.

Even behind superstar signal callers Justin Fields and Trevor Lawrence on the depth charts, Clemson and Ohio State have a lot of talent at the positions thanks to consistent results of late on the recruiting trail. And Fields and Lawrence themselves aren’t considered far and away the two best quarterbacks in the nation heading into the 2020 season. They met in a College Football Playoff semifinal game last year, which resulted in a Clemson win.

However, what the Longhorns bring to the table in this particular discussion is namely the star rising senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger. As likely one of the five best quarterbacks in the country at least, Ehlinger brings a lot of star power in his final year on the Forty Acres.

What Ehlinger brings back with him this season is 8,870 career passing yards, 68 passing touchdowns, 22 interceptions, 1,526 rushing yards, and 25 rushing touchdowns. That includes an average of 3.5 yards per carry, 143.4 passer efficiency rating, and 8.0 adjusted yards per passing attempt.

Another driving force that does add some depth to this quarterback room is the former four-star dual-threat recruit and rising redshirt sophomore Casey Thompson. As a name that appeared in the NCAA Transfer Portal for a brief time last offseason, Thompson could now be the starter in waiting for the Longhorns once Ehlinger’s time in college is done.

Thompson has just over 100 career total yards and one rushing touchdown to go along with no passing touchdowns and no interceptions. We’re likely to see Thompson more in action this fall, though, to see what he brings to the table in a bigger body of work.

And possibly the last significant piece of the quarterback room to mention in this discussion is the incoming freshman and former highly touted four-star recruit Hudson Card. The Austin, TX, native could also be a starter in waiting at the quarterback position for Texas.

Texas is set to open the season at home on Sep. 5 against the South Florida Bulls. They’re coming off a 2019 campaign where they finished up with a record of 8-5 (5-4 Big 12) after beating the Utah Utes in the Alamo Bowl.