Texas Football: Longhorns relying more heavily on rushing for first downs

It appears as far as pure production goes, the rushing attack for the Texas football program is getting more effective under Tom Herman of late.

The way that the offense evolved under the direction of head coach Tom Herman for the Texas football program in the last couple of years was an interesting development for the fans. Herman does have an offensive system that places a lot of pressure on the quarterback to go through multiple reads very fast, and be able to use his legs to break an opposing defense.

That’s what Herman got during his brief run as head coach of the Houston Cougars program when former star Greg Ward was the starting quarterback. He also got that when he was the offensive coordinator in the early-to-mid 2010’s with the Ohio State Buckeyes between the likes of JT Barrett, Cardale Jones, and Braxton Miller (before he switched to wide receiver).

Now Herman is getting the same thing out of rising senior star quarterback Sam Ehlinger. Entering his fourth year on the Forty Acres, Herman does appear to be trying to conserve the health of Ehlinger a bit more than he did at the beginning of his career. But he is also trying to be more effective in the areas where he uses Ehlinger’s legs and power run ability as a weapon.

One area where the threat of Ehlinger’s running ability becomes evident for the Longhorns is the way the amount of rushing first downs compared to passing in the last couple of years is trending. For the first time under the direction of Herman as head coach, Texas reached a double-digit number of rushing first downs per game last season. In the three prior seasons, Texas only averaged more than nine rushing first downs per game once.

Last season, Texas averaged exactly 10 rushing first downs per game, compared to just over 13.0 passing. What also helped the Longhorns get over the hump in terms of the total quantity of rushing first downs was the threat of more than one running back consistently. The breakthrough of then true freshman former converted quarterback Roschon Johnson was huge alongside sophomore Keaontay Ingram.

Johnson and Ingram combined for more than 1,600 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns on the ground last season, while averaging well over five yards per carry. Ehlinger also averaged more than four yards per carry for the first time in his college career last season, but did so on a lower number of rushing attempts than he had the prior season.

Ehlinger notched nearly 700 rushing yards last season, and did so while having his most efficient season to date in terms of yards per carry. That could spell good things for the direction that Ehlinger’s game is headed come this fall.

As a whole, Texas is also trending in the right direction it seems in terms of getting more effective plays out of the ground game. Getting around eight rushing first downs per game like they did two and three seasons ago is not acceptable for a team that posted less than four yards per carry at times and recruits as well at the position as the Longhorns do.

Under former Texas head coach Charlie Strong, the script flipped on the Longhorns as they relied more on the ground game to get first downs than the passing attack. But Herman does run an air-raid style scheme to keep up in the Big 12, so the fact that his number of rushing first downs per game is working its way into the double-digits is a potentially good sign for the balance and effectiveness of the offense.