Texas Football: Ehlinger says Tech ‘left us too much time”

A big win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders marked another top notch performance down the stretch for senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger.

The way that senior star Texas football quarterback Sam Ehlinger played down the stretch in his team’s win in the Big 12 opener back on Sep. 26 on the road against the Texas Tech Red Raiders was absolutely amazing. Ehlinger helped lead Texas in a 15-point comeback late in the fourth quarter against Texas Tech over the weekend to pull off one of the most improbable runs in recent memory in the FBS.

There was a point in the fourth quarter in which the Longhorns apparently had just a 0.2 percent chance to win the game. And the level of improbability that the Longhorns were actually going to comeback and win this game down 56-41 with less than four minutes to go in the fourth quarter is ridiculous.

All of these numbers that highlight how awesome the comeback was for Ehlinger and the Longhorns does overshadow a more important point that Texas Tech shouldn’t have played them this close anyway. Texas had a few notable problems surface on each side of the ball.

The good news for head coach Tom Herman and the Longhorns was that Ehlinger is an experienced signal caller that wasn’t phased by the daunting task of coming back from 15 points down. Although Ehlinger had his faults in the second half of the Big 12 opener, he didn’t waver when it mattered most.

And this is something that Herman recognized in a postgame interview, with something that Sam told him during the later stages of this game. Ehlinger apparently told Herman that Texas Tech left the Longhorns “too much time” when their offense got a chance to comeback with just a few minutes left in the game.

All three of the touchdowns that the Longhorns scored late in this game were passes from Ehlinger. Two of the passes went to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Joshua Moore, and the other to junior Brennan Eagles. And Eagles got the pivotal two-point conversion to tie the game in the fourth quarter.

Ehlinger finished up this game with more than 350 total yards, six total touchdowns (five passing and one rushing), and one pick. That was the first pick that Ehlinger tossed since late in the 2019 regular season. He’s started out this season with more than 700 total yards and 11 total scores in just two games.

Texas now carries a record of 2-0 (1-0 Big 12) and a No. 9 ranking in the AP Poll following their win over the Red Raiders last weekend. Next up for Ehlinger and the Longhorns is their Big 12 home opener against the TCU Horned Frogs on Oct. 3, kicking off at 11 a.m. CT.