Texas Football: 3 takeaways from dominant win over UTEP in Week 1

2) Takeaways from Texas football win over UTEP: Sam Ehlinger will be a Heisman contender

It is always too early to tell how certain Heisman contenders will stack up after the opening weekend of Power Five football action. But if there were any two Heisman contenders that at least stepped to the forefront in Big 12 action over the weekend, it was senior star Longhorns quarterback Sam Ehlinger and Oklahoma freshman quarterback Spencer Rattler.

Ehlinger had a record-breaking first half for the Longhorns in this win over UTEP. By the time halftime arrived, Ehlinger was just shy of 450 passing yards, with five touchdowns. He wound up with 25 completions on 33 passing attempts, five passing touchdowns, 438 total yards, and no interceptions. He also had no rushing touchdowns in this game.

Ehlinger was ultra-efficient in the manner in which he distributed in the ball in the season opener too. He registered a 75.8 completion percentage, a whopping 15.9 adjusted yards per passing attempt, and a career-best (in a single start) 234.8 passer efficiency rating. He didn’t really have any glaring mistakes made in this game.

He was really good whether he came under pressure, or had a clean pocket. And that was a big key in this game. The offensive line held up much better than it usually did last year. Ehlinger was only put under pressure on 12 dropbacks, and sacked zero times. He had an impressive seven completions on 11 passing attempts when put under pressure, which went for 148 passing yards and two passing touchdowns.