Texas Football: 3 teams Sam Ehlinger has dominated

3. Kansas Jayhawks

There’s no doubt that Ehlinger and the Longhorns should be able to year in and year out handle what former LSU head coach Les Miles and the lowly Kansas Jayhawks bring to the table in terms of strength of opposition. Kansas is usually at the bottom of the Big 12 standings, so beating them doesn’t allow Texas to boast a whole lot.

But for some reason the Longhorns have struggled to take care of business against the Jayhawks in recent years. Dating back to that massive upset in the final year under former head coach Charlie Strong, where Texas fell short to Kansas by a one possession margin on the road back in 2016, the Jayhawks were a thorn in their side.

Ehlinger is doing a good job of doing all he can to make sure that the Jayhawks are no problem for the Longhorns. He is a perfect 3-0 in his tries against Kansas since landing on the Forty Acres. But he only got a few reps in during his freshman campaign against Kansas, as former Texas quarterback Shane Buechele got the start in that game in 2017.

Although, each of the last two seasons saw Ehlinger do all he could to push the Longhorns past the Jayhawks. He was dealing with a shoulder injury in Texas’ win over Kansas back in 2018. And Kansas gave Texas a real scare last season, with kicker Cameron Dicker getting the last minute game-winning field goal to get the win.

In his career against Kansas, Ehlinger registered a 66.2 completion percentage on 74 attempts, nearly 700 total yards, eight total touchdowns, three interceptions, and a solid 153.1 passer efficiency rating.