I will only make this one post as I know it will only get flamed. I am not trolling. Just facts:
Sam Ehlinger is about as endearing a person and leader as you can be. Truly Colt-esque. I've done a total 180 on him since his Freshman year when I had no hope for him whatsoever and I will gladly eat my crow as far as any bashing I ever did of him - it wasn't fair then. I was the guy calling for Heard all that time. That's where I wasn't wrong, though.
As a thesis for my argument, here it goes: Sam Ehlinger is the reason we are even a 9-10 win team these past two years, this year included, and the next year too (as his starting position is completely unthreatened due to the fact he is pretty damn good and moreso the fact he is a clean cut good white dude), but more importantly, he's also the reason we aren't more than a 9-10 win team.
Jalen Hurts demonstrated why me calling for Heard was correct. You need a dynamic running QB to be in the National Championship hunt, period. If you don't have that, you need a guy like Lawrence or Burrow, who are Aaron Rodgers-esque with their accuracy, pocket awareness/decent mobility. Sam isn't quite that.
The reason it is so important was obvious today. Hurts was the difference. As Klatt and Gus Johnson pointed out, his threat as a runner on the play action reads is everything and disguises who the hell has the ball. It is a coach on the field. It is what VY posed. It is what Manziel posed. It is what Watson posed. This is what elite QB looks like and what we should have at UT QB, where it all started with the best of them all, VY.
Lamb was a beast, but he was mostly a beast because of Hurts threat in this manner. They weren't the only two beasts. Their RBs ate all day too. Again, all Hurts.
I love Sam Ehlinger and am not trying to bash him. These are just facts. QB is the most important position in all of sports, period. In football, after QB, a damn good defense comes next. Our defense is young and we played well today actually despite getting statistically shredded. Case in point. Now we know how USC felt when they tried to cover someone like VY.
That said, consider this the beginning of my call for R. Johnson to QB immediately. Won't happen of course. But we need to go ahead and set that standard if we want to fast track to the top of CFB.
#1 quality of a QB we look for should be, how are you when your house is on fire? Flat footed? Not very fast? Not very aware? Sorry, next.
Sam played tough as hell and played well overall of course. Admirably well. He's a warrior and you can't take that from him. But he also took a ton of sacks and waddled out on roll outs for 2 yard losses and gains and intentional groundings more than I can stand or our team can stand in the face of a truly good opponent.
Let the R. Johnson and whoever else is down the recruiting pipeline similar to him era begin ASAP. Flame away.