College Football: Top 30 breakout candidates for 2018 season
Is Texas back? That might be too early to determine, but any failures to arrive in 2018 won’t be the fault of their quarterback. Sam Ehlinger won the job over last year’s incumbent Shane Buechelle in spring, largly because of Ehlinger’s upside.
Superstar quarterbacks in this day and age stem from two unique trees. Some are prototypical power-arm gunslingers (think Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, Josh Allen) while others are fall into the dual-threat mold (e.g. Lamar Jackson, Marcus Mariota, Johnny Manziel). As more than one college coach can tell you, having a capable runner as your starting quarterback can cover a lot of passing deficiencies.
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The Longhorns lucked out for this reason: Ehlinger can do both. As a freshman he threw for 1,915 yards in split duty with Buechelle last season, adding 381 yards on the ground. His 114 carries were only slightly lower than his 158 completions.
One of these years the Longhorns are finally going to put things together an reemerge as contenders in the Big 12. If 2018 is going to be that year it’s going to be because of the production of Ehlinger.