Texas Football: Sam Ehlinger bumped up in top 5 of Heisman odds

Texas football has a big shot to get a Heisman finalist for this coming season if senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger has a stellar run in 2020.

This season might be one of the weirdest races to get the Heisman Trophy that we’ve ever seen in a college football campaign. In the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic, two of the Power Five conferences won’t be playing in the usual fall season (Big Ten and the PAC-12). That could give potential Heisman contenders, like star senior Texas football quarterback Sam Ehlinger, a much clearer path to winning the Heisman Trophy this season.

And according to the early Heisman odds, post-Week 1 of the 2020 college football season, Ehlinger is doing quite well in the national picture if he has a solid senior campaign. Ehlinger ranks among the top five favorites to win the Heisman Trophy this fall, getting bumped above the likes of Oklahoma State redshirt junior running back Chuba Hubbard, LSU Tigers first-time starting quarterback Myles Brennan, and Alabama Crimson Tide redshirt junior quarterback Mac Jones.

The only three players that rank ahead of Ehlinger in the Heisman odds after Week 1 of the 2020 season are Miami quarterback D’Eriq King, Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler, and Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence. That would make Ehlinger the Heisman favorite out of the Big 12 at this point in time this fall.

He has a real shot to bolster his chances, and his initial production this season, when the Longhorns open up next weekend on Sep. 12 at home against the UTEP Miners out of the Conference-USA. UTEP already had their season opener last weekend, in a 10-point win over the FCS Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks at home in El Paso.

But UTEP shouldn’t be too much of a difficult opponent for Ehlinger and the Longhorns to open up with. He’s bringing back with him more than 4,000 total yards from last season, to go along with a career-best 151.8 passer efficiency rating, and 39 total touchdowns compared to 10 picks.

Texas then opens up Big 12 play on Sep. 26 on the road in Lubbock against the Texas Tech Red Raiders. That will be the first game where there is really a national spotlight that is placed on Ehlinger as he starts getting judged on his Heisman candidacy.

There are a few other Longhorns that could realistically breakthrough and compete for the Heisman as dark horse candidates this year. Most of those would be running backs, like junior Keaontay Ingram and sophomore Roschon Johnson.