Texas Football: 3 backup QBs the Longhorns could get out of the portal

Zach Calzada

Of the three quarterbacks on this list, the most likely that could take a backup job at a place like Texas is the former Auburn Tigers and Texas A&M Aggies redshirt junior Zach Calzada.

In the last few years, injuries unfortunately limited any shot that Calzada had of winning a Power Five starting quarterback job consistently. He missed essentially the entire 2022 regular season at Auburn thanks to a shoulder injury that he suffered back in August.

And that was not the first time that a shoulder injury limited Calzada in the last few years. He missed time in the last two years at Texas A&M due to an injury to his non-throwing shoulder.

Moreover, Calzada’s injury-riddled collegiate career will probably limit the number of Power Five destinations he’s looking at where he could even compete for a starting job in 2023. Unless he’s willing to join a Group of Five or FCS program that has a starting job that needs to be filled right away in 2023, Calzada will have to find a backup job somewhere and work his way up from there.

In terms of the scheme fit for Calzada in Sark’s offense, there is a lot to like about this connection. Calzada has a big arm and a large frame at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds. He can hit a lot of those deep throws that help Sark stretch the field and open up space for his playmakers.

Calzada also has the accuracy and timing on the ball to get some of those underneath crossers and intermediate routes on the outside to keep the Texas offense methodically moving the ball down the field.

The fit for Calzada in this offense makes sense. In this hypothetical scenario, that would leave the question of whether he would be willing to take the backseat to the likes of Ewers and Arch for the next couple of years.