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On 9/4/2019 at 3:32 PM, DeathTongue said:

"It didn’t take long for the quarterback known as Johnny Longhorn to ascend to that level of Austin A-list recognition."

Do people really call him that?

absolutely nobody calls him Johnny Longhorn.

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On 9/4/2019 at 3:32 PM, DeathTongue said:

Do people really call him that?

We call him Sam, or Ehlinger, or Sam Ehlinger. When he beats lsu, i’ll call him the pussy tamer for a few days. Ultimately, to be remembered as a legend at University of Texas, your nickname will simply be your first name. Sam.

Save the candy ass school boy nicknames for aggy

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2 hours ago, CheesePie said:

We call him Sam, or Ehlinger, or Sam Ehlinger. When he beats lsu, i’ll call him the pussy tamer for a few days. Ultimately, to be remembered as a legend at University of Texas, your nickname will simply be your first name. Sam.

Save the candy ass school boy nicknames for aggy

Ricky, Earl, Vince, Colt, and Sam in the works

but the older guard don't get that. We don't say "bobby," we say "bobby layne."

Although I've heard some people call James Street, "Jimmy."

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Been reading that the 4 goalline running plays against Georgia in the sugar bowl was sam ehlinger calling his own play. The coaches wanted to run a finesse play but ehlinger said "give me the ball and I'll score" and came through on his word.

What a fucking badass.

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6 minutes ago, BigXII said:

Been reading that the 4 goalline running plays against Georgia in the sugar bowl was sam ehlinger calling his own play. The coaches wanted to run a finesse play but ehlinger said "give me the ball and I'll score" and came through on his word.

What a fucking badass.

You sure that wasn’t Hoosiers?

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1 minute ago, TexEx15 said:

Anyone got this?

 

AUSTIN, Texas – Tim Beck really thought he had the perfect trick play up his sleeve. Texas, up 20-7 in the Sugar Bowl, was driving in for the kill against Georgia when the third quarter ended. So before the fourth quarter began, Texas’ offensive coordinator pitched the trick play to coach Tom Herman over the headset. Herman liked it. They both knew Sam Ehlinger liked that particular play, too.

There was just one problem. Beck laughs as he remembers the answer he heard when Texas reached the goal line and it was time for his trickery.

“Hey, Sam doesn’t wanna do that.”

“What?” a confused Beck asked.

“He says he doesn’t wanna do it.”

“Well, what does he wanna do?”

“He says give him the ball and he’s gonna score.”

Beck won’t say what the trick play call was. He’s saving it for another day. There was no stopping his quarterback at that point. He’d just scrambled on third and long, absorbed a hard hit and pushed his way down to the 1. And now he was going to finish the job.

The Bulldogs knew exactly what was coming. Ehlinger ran it on first down. Georgia safety Richard LeCounte hit him in the chin and officials ruled him just short. He ran it on second down. Just short again. He ran it on third down. Georgia’s front penetrated and nearly stripped him. He ran it on fourth down. This time, LeCounte shot through the line. Ehlinger side-stepped him, fought through a leg tackle and fell forward. And he scored.

“He finally scored,” Beck said. “When he came off to the sideline, I was like, ‘Great job. But what took you so damn long? It took ya four times.’ He says, ‘Coach, that’s bullshit. I was in on the second one.’”

Empowering Ehlinger to end that defining drive in the Sugar Bowl victory was a moment Texas had been building up to all year. The buzzword this staff kept repeating throughout that offseason? Finish. The token Herman kept holding up in their locker room during the season? Poker chips. This was their all-in shove. And everyone on that sideline knew who to bet on.

Those powerful legs make Ehlinger a one-of-a-kind talent in college football. His running style is not statistically efficient, but it is effective. He’s not fast, but he’s quick enough. He has the upper body of a quarterback and the lower body of a fullback. He’s weirdly elusive, tough enough to take hard hits but creative in how he avoids them. And there’s just something about those hits, about that punishment, that gets him rolling.

“It’s a mentality,” Ehlinger said. “We’re gonna do everything we can to put the ball in the end zone. We’re gonna go the hardest we can every single time. And we’re gonna wait until you tap. If you don’t and you stop us, good job. But we’re gonna push you to that limit. Whatever it takes, I’m gonna put my body on the line.”

The numbers he put up last season prove just how uncommon he is. Here’s the list of college football players who have rushed for 15 or more touchdowns but less than 500 yards in one season since 2001: Sam Ehlinger. That’s it. Even better: Ehlinger is one of only two players to score 15 rushing TDs and average less than 3 yards per carry in a season in the last 60 years.

Remove the sacks and that yards per carry average would still only rank 72nd among FBS quarterbacks. But on designed runs, no QB was better at converting first downs or touchdowns than Ehlinger.

Herman and Beck try to carefully manage Ehlinger’s rushing workload. The head coach says they’re going to need it at “key points” this season. The first one is Saturday, when No. 6 LSU comes to town for the biggest Texas home game in a decade. And the No. 9 Longhorns are down to just one healthy running back. It’s time for Ehlinger to run right into another SEC foe determined to shut him down. Like Georgia, the defense will know exactly what’s coming. But that hasn’t stopped him yet.

After Texas’ loss to Maryland last September, Herman and Beck did not hesitate to stick with Ehlinger as their starter. And Ehlinger did not hesitate to tell Beck what needed to change. He ran five times and threw it 39 times in the stunning 34-29 loss.

“He was like, ‘Coach, run me. Run me,’” Beck recalled. “He gets in the flow of the game better that way, actually. He likes it. He likes to get hit or hit somebody and talk smack, and then all the sudden he’s all fired up and ready to go.”

As Texas figured out how to embrace that over the course of the season, this truly became Ehlinger’s offense. The Longhorns’ run game revolved around a few basic staples — power, counter, sweep, draw and reads/RPOs — that the sophomore executed confidently.

If you go back and watch all 136 of Ehlinger’s run plays in 2018, you’re not going to be wowed by a bunch of big gains. His longest run was an 18-yard scramble. No, it’s the productivity in short-yardage situations that really shines. He’s the reason why Texas went 12-of-15 on fourth downs last season, second-best nationally. He gained first downs or touchdowns on 47 percent of his designed runs. On those designed runs when Texas needed to gain five yards or less, Ehlinger converted 74 percent of the time.  Texas scored on 23 of 26 drives in which he got at least one carry in the red zone, with 19 touchdowns.

There’s no big secret behind that effectiveness. Ehlinger insists this is simple stuff. The QB run game creates and exploits a simple numbers advantage. When Texas’ much-improved offensive line got a hat on a hat and blocked it right, they created plenty of space for Ehlinger to scoot. The first of his three touchdowns against Oklahoma last October is a prime example. When you can create this 8-on-6 situation, Ehlinger is going to punish a defense.

“A lot of the time, on some of the power stuff, I’m just running through arm tackles,” he said. “It’s really efficient because everyone’s covered. Sometimes there’s that one guy I have to beat. But we gain that upper edge with the quarterback run game because they lose a hat and don’t have an extra guy to account for me.

“It’s just a numbers game. The efficiency you see, it’s there because it’s designed that way. It’s extremely simple math. We have the numbers and we’re doing a good job up front of getting hats on hats to where they don’t have enough numbers.”

Ehlinger logged 39 broken tackles on run plays last season (10th-most among FBS QBs) and 358 rushing yards after contact, according to data compiled by Sports Info Solutions. Beck liked the improvements he made as a scrambler, too, in picking up 240 yards on 44 escapes. He saw better pocket presence and more north-south running.

“He got smarter,” Beck said, “and we got smarter about using him. We learned more about who he is and what he likes to do.”

But Texas coaches are cautious about this ability of his. Ehlinger had to exit two games last season with injuries to his throwing shoulder, both on runs. The coaches aren’t the only ones in his ear. “I’m just trying to get my man to protect himself,” Texas wideout Collin Johnson said during fall camp. “He always likes running people over out there.” Herman smiled when asked recently about finding that balance and said, “For three years, there’s been that discussion.” Ehlinger’s take on this is one he’s probably argued repeatedly with the staff over those three years. He senses there’s a common misconception about how many hits he’s actually taking in a game. The physical toll of those run plays, he says, isn’t as bad as people might think.

“I mean, how many huge hits do you see?” Ehlinger said.

Not many. He figured out how to avoid those collisions as a sophomore. There’s something a little different about the way Ehlinger navigates through traffic. He can’t really explain the moves he makes. They’re all instinctive. The way he changes direction, cuts back and slips past defenders is subtle and calculated. We’re not talking big jukes and jump-cuts. This is dodge, duck, dip, dive, dodge. Sure, it might look slow from afar. In the heat of the moment, it takes quick feet and good eyes.

But it’s more than that. Ehlinger says he’s learned how to anticipate the speed and momentum of oncoming defenders. When a guy is running at you 20 miles an hour, he reasons, it’s hard for them to change direction at the last second. A small but quick sidestep can make them whiff. He’s always calculating where he wants to go and how to fool them into going where he’s not.

“I understand that I’m not gonna be the fastest,” he said. “I understand that I’m not the strongest. So I use that against my opponent. I use their momentum and their speed and their strength against them.”

And that leads to things like his dead-leg move, which earns a lot of grief from bewildered teammates. He can’t explain where that stop-start maneuver came from. But shoot, it worked a lot last season.

“I’m telling ya, Sam Ehlinger is not sexy,” Beck said with a laugh. “He’s not! He’s not that guy. But that’s what everybody loves about him.”

And he makes up for it with his smarts. Ehlinger did not fumble once on a designed run last season. Those times when he lowers his shoulder and pushes through for extra yardage? He’s trying to save those for third downs and goal-line runs. He can tell that’s part of the misconception of his game. Believe it or not, he’s not trying to take big hits or be reckless.

And he’ll get to prove that as a junior. Texas’ QB run game is still evolving and embracing more RPO elements. At Big 12 media days, Herman specifically cited Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield when talking about the importance of Ehlinger getting the ball out faster and from different arm angles on quick throws. When teams anticipate the run and load up the box, he needs to make them pay.

The first touchdown of Texas’ 2019 season? Ehlinger counted the defenders in the box, read Louisiana Tech’s linebacker and fired a pass out to Devin Duvernay, who walked in for a four-yard score. It wasn’t sexy. But it was smart.

Trevor Lawrence was the one who started the joke. The Clemson phenom was out in Southern California hanging with Ehlinger and some of college football’s top passers at Steve Clarkson’s QB retreat in late May. And when he saw a photo of the Texas QB from the event pop up on Twitter, he couldn’t help it.

“It was a terrible angle,” Ehlinger said with a laugh. “My neck just looked huge. Just a weird picture. I was showing everybody out there, like, ‘Man, what are they doing? C’mon.’ I looked like a fullback, for real.”

Lawrence’s reply upon seeing it: “You look like a unit, bro.”

“So then, of course,” Ehlinger said, “everybody started being like, ‘What up, Unit?’”

Ehlinger had fun catching up with Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa and those elite quarterbacks he’s known for years. He fits right in with that group. But there is truth to the joke and the nickname. Because Ehlinger does not look like those dudes.

Texas strength coach Yancy McKnight has seen Ehlinger achieve some freaky feats in the weight room. He maxed out around 520 pounds on squats this summer. He power cleans more than 300 pounds. McKnight says the weight he can handle on pull-ups and deadlifts is startling. He has a 36-inch vertical. He’s put on a solid 20 pounds since joining the program and is down to just 9 percent body fat. He looks better than ever now playing at 225 pounds.

“I think people don’t realize how thick he is and how heavy he is but also how lean he is,” McKnight said. “He is yoked. You kind of take it for granted a little bit.”

The focus, Ehlinger says, is explosive power for his lower body and upper-body flexibility. He’s a shining example of McKnight’s emphasis on lean mass. He wants players who are strong and powerful in their legs. For Ehlinger, that has always come naturally.

“I guess it’s just the way the Ehlinger family is built,” he said. “We have large thighs and quads. My brother (Texas freshman linebacker Jake Ehlinger) is the same way. He’s real thick.”

How fast is he? McKnight says Ehlinger is actually a “solid 4.6 guy.” He then quickly quips, “It’s not Michael Vick, but it’s not Tom Brady. For us, it’s just right.” Ehlinger does wear a Catapult GPS monitor during ballgames, and McKnight says that data has shown the QB can get up around 19 miles per hour in game action. But he does his damage in small bursts, not in breakaway sprints.

“It’s powerful,” McKnight said. “It’s not top-end fast, which I think is deceiving. Because you see him and those in and out cut movements that he does, they’re powerful and they’re efficient. There’s not a lot of wasted motion. He really has a natural feel for it.”

The work he’s put in under McKnight has helped him build up the armor needed to play the way he does. He learned to embrace the weight room before his sophomore year at Austin Westlake High School, hoping to gain an edge in his competition for the starting job. McKnight loves how meticulous Ehlinger is about all the little details, including his diet. And when your QB1 cares that much, he helps raise the standard for everybody else.

“But don’t let the cover of the book fool ya,” McKnight said. “Because he looks like he’s the perfect angel guy. Well, you know, he’s got a different side to him. Don’t let the exterior fool you that he’s not a tough dude. He’s got an edge about him. And that permeates through our whole building. People follow him because he does have that edge.”

Herman and McKnight are chasing a vision. They’re constructing an ultra-physical Texas program, one that plays relentlessly hard but smart football. They could not have inherited a better fit at quarterback for that ethos. The head coach argues Ehlinger improved more from 2017 to 2018 than any quarterback in college football. A big reason for that: He’s built and wired precisely for what they want the Longhorns to become.

“But I don’t think it would matter, to be honest with you,” McKnight said. “If he was 225 or if he was 205, he would probably play the way he plays.”

Everything that goes into making Ehlinger such an effective runner – strategy, mentality, strength, hard-headed persistence – came to a climax in that January goal-line standoff in New Orleans. Forget the numbers advantage down here. It’s a four-play war. The more powerful front wins, period.

“I was gonna give everything I had in that moment to get the ball in the end zone,” Ehlinger said.

And no way could that Texas team do it the easy way. When Ehlinger watches a clip of that series, he asks after the first play: “How was I not in there?” And maybe he was. But these Longhorns had been grinding out close wins all season long. Georgia still rallied later in that fourth quarter and made it a tense one-score game. The night could’ve flipped right there on fourth and inches. Georgia’s defense gave Ehlinger their best shot. And he withstood it and still snuck in.

“He really hurt us,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said afterward.

Weeks later in a TV interview, Matthew McConaughey shared the tale of what he witnessed down on the Longhorns’ sideline after Ehlinger finally punched it in.

“He’d just got in on fourth down. Georgia just loaded up, knew he was coming and nailed him and he still got in,” McConaughey recalled. “And he comes up on the sideline and everyone’s behind him rah-rahing him and he kinda looks over his shoulder and goes…”

And then McConaughey mimicked a casual, extremely Texan spit over his left shoulder before breaking out a wide grin.

“I’m like, ‘Yes. That’s our quarterback right there.’”

After it was all over, Ehlinger nodded to his head coach and told him, “Thank you for giving me the ball. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

This LSU game won’t be any different. He’s going to run. Probably a lot. You can’t tell him not to in a game like this. McKnight says you mess with the mojo when you do that. You mess with something this team thrives off. And on a week when Keaontay Ingram is this team’s only healthy running back, the Longhorns will need the QB run game more than ever.

“I tell guys all the time, everyone wants to be a lion until it’s time to do lion shit,” McKnight said. “That’s him. Everybody wants to talk about it. He’s gonna do it.”

The late Texas coach Darrell Royal liked to say you dance with who brung ya. In the biggest ballgames of Herman’s tenure, they’ve let Ehlinger dance. His 15-plus-carry efforts have usually been reserved for their toughest tests: Oklahoma, USC, Georgia. Against the Tigers and their loaded secondary, he could show off just how far he’s come as a passer. But those tough rushes in key moments may once again decide it.

Ehlinger is going to pick his spots. He’ll be smart about when he takes his hits. But nobody doubts what they’ve seen so many times: On Saturday night, he’ll do whatever it takes.

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2 minutes ago, Machinator said:

 

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AUSTIN, Texas – Tim Beck really thought he had the perfect trick play up his sleeve. Texas, up 20-7 in the Sugar Bowl, was driving in for the kill against Georgia when the third quarter ended. So before the fourth quarter began, Texas’ offensive coordinator pitched the trick play to coach Tom Herman over the headset. Herman liked it. They both knew Sam Ehlinger liked that particular play, too.

There was just one problem. Beck laughs as he remembers the answer he heard when Texas reached the goal line and it was time for his trickery.

“Hey, Sam doesn’t wanna do that.”

“What?” a confused Beck asked.

“He says he doesn’t wanna do it.”

“Well, what does he wanna do?”

“He says give him the ball and he’s gonna score.”

Beck won’t say what the trick play call was. He’s saving it for another day. There was no stopping his quarterback at that point. He’d just scrambled on third and long, absorbed a hard hit and pushed his way down to the 1. And now he was going to finish the job.

The Bulldogs knew exactly what was coming. Ehlinger ran it on first down. Georgia safety Richard LeCounte hit him in the chin and officials ruled him just short. He ran it on second down. Just short again. He ran it on third down. Georgia’s front penetrated and nearly stripped him. He ran it on fourth down. This time, LeCounte shot through the line. Ehlinger side-stepped him, fought through a leg tackle and fell forward. And he scored.

“He finally scored,” Beck said. “When he came off to the sideline, I was like, ‘Great job. But what took you so damn long? It took ya four times.’ He says, ‘Coach, that’s bullshit. I was in on the second one.’”

Empowering Ehlinger to end that defining drive in the Sugar Bowl victory was a moment Texas had been building up to all year. The buzzword this staff kept repeating throughout that offseason? Finish. The token Herman kept holding up in their locker room during the season? Poker chips. This was their all-in shove. And everyone on that sideline knew who to bet on.

Those powerful legs make Ehlinger a one-of-a-kind talent in college football. His running style is not statistically efficient, but it is effective. He’s not fast, but he’s quick enough. He has the upper body of a quarterback and the lower body of a fullback. He’s weirdly elusive, tough enough to take hard hits but creative in how he avoids them. And there’s just something about those hits, about that punishment, that gets him rolling.

“It’s a mentality,” Ehlinger said. “We’re gonna do everything we can to put the ball in the end zone. We’re gonna go the hardest we can every single time. And we’re gonna wait until you tap. If you don’t and you stop us, good job. But we’re gonna push you to that limit. Whatever it takes, I’m gonna put my body on the line.”

The numbers he put up last season prove just how uncommon he is. Here’s the list of college football players who have rushed for 15 or more touchdowns but less than 500 yards in one season since 2001: Sam Ehlinger. That’s it. Even better: Ehlinger is one of only two players to score 15 rushing TDs and average less than 3 yards per carry in a season in the last 60 years.

Remove the sacks and that yards per carry average would still only rank 72nd among FBS quarterbacks. But on designed runs, no QB was better at converting first downs or touchdowns than Ehlinger.

Herman and Beck try to carefully manage Ehlinger’s rushing workload. The head coach says they’re going to need it at “key points” this season. The first one is Saturday, when No. 6 LSU comes to town for the biggest Texas home game in a decade. And the No. 9 Longhorns are down to just one healthy running back. It’s time for Ehlinger to run right into another SEC foe determined to shut him down. Like Georgia, the defense will know exactly what’s coming. But that hasn’t stopped him yet.

After Texas’ loss to Maryland last September, Herman and Beck did not hesitate to stick with Ehlinger as their starter. And Ehlinger did not hesitate to tell Beck what needed to change. He ran five times and threw it 39 times in the stunning 34-29 loss.

“He was like, ‘Coach, run me. Run me,’” Beck recalled. “He gets in the flow of the game better that way, actually. He likes it. He likes to get hit or hit somebody and talk smack, and then all the sudden he’s all fired up and ready to go.”

As Texas figured out how to embrace that over the course of the season, this truly became Ehlinger’s offense. The Longhorns’ run game revolved around a few basic staples — power, counter, sweep, draw and reads/RPOs — that the sophomore executed confidently.

If you go back and watch all 136 of Ehlinger’s run plays in 2018, you’re not going to be wowed by a bunch of big gains. His longest run was an 18-yard scramble. No, it’s the productivity in short-yardage situations that really shines. He’s the reason why Texas went 12-of-15 on fourth downs last season, second-best nationally. He gained first downs or touchdowns on 47 percent of his designed runs. On those designed runs when Texas needed to gain five yards or less, Ehlinger converted 74 percent of the time.  Texas scored on 23 of 26 drives in which he got at least one carry in the red zone, with 19 touchdowns.

There’s no big secret behind that effectiveness. Ehlinger insists this is simple stuff. The QB run game creates and exploits a simple numbers advantage. When Texas’ much-improved offensive line got a hat on a hat and blocked it right, they created plenty of space for Ehlinger to scoot. The first of his three touchdowns against Oklahoma last October is a prime example. When you can create this 8-on-6 situation, Ehlinger is going to punish a defense.

“A lot of the time, on some of the power stuff, I’m just running through arm tackles,” he said. “It’s really efficient because everyone’s covered. Sometimes there’s that one guy I have to beat. But we gain that upper edge with the quarterback run game because they lose a hat and don’t have an extra guy to account for me.

“It’s just a numbers game. The efficiency you see, it’s there because it’s designed that way. It’s extremely simple math. We have the numbers and we’re doing a good job up front of getting hats on hats to where they don’t have enough numbers.”

Ehlinger logged 39 broken tackles on run plays last season (10th-most among FBS QBs) and 358 rushing yards after contact, according to data compiled by Sports Info Solutions. Beck liked the improvements he made as a scrambler, too, in picking up 240 yards on 44 escapes. He saw better pocket presence and more north-south running.

“He got smarter,” Beck said, “and we got smarter about using him. We learned more about who he is and what he likes to do.”

But Texas coaches are cautious about this ability of his. Ehlinger had to exit two games last season with injuries to his throwing shoulder, both on runs. The coaches aren’t the only ones in his ear. “I’m just trying to get my man to protect himself,” Texas wideout Collin Johnson said during fall camp. “He always likes running people over out there.” Herman smiled when asked recently about finding that balance and said, “For three years, there’s been that discussion.” Ehlinger’s take on this is one he’s probably argued repeatedly with the staff over those three years. He senses there’s a common misconception about how many hits he’s actually taking in a game. The physical toll of those run plays, he says, isn’t as bad as people might think.

“I mean, how many huge hits do you see?” Ehlinger said.

Not many. He figured out how to avoid those collisions as a sophomore. There’s something a little different about the way Ehlinger navigates through traffic. He can’t really explain the moves he makes. They’re all instinctive. The way he changes direction, cuts back and slips past defenders is subtle and calculated. We’re not talking big jukes and jump-cuts. This is dodge, duck, dip, dive, dodge. Sure, it might look slow from afar. In the heat of the moment, it takes quick feet and good eyes.

But it’s more than that. Ehlinger says he’s learned how to anticipate the speed and momentum of oncoming defenders. When a guy is running at you 20 miles an hour, he reasons, it’s hard for them to change direction at the last second. A small but quick sidestep can make them whiff. He’s always calculating where he wants to go and how to fool them into going where he’s not.

“I understand that I’m not gonna be the fastest,” he said. “I understand that I’m not the strongest. So I use that against my opponent. I use their momentum and their speed and their strength against them.”

And that leads to things like his dead-leg move, which earns a lot of grief from bewildered teammates. He can’t explain where that stop-start maneuver came from. But shoot, it worked a lot last season.

“I’m telling ya, Sam Ehlinger is not sexy,” Beck said with a laugh. “He’s not! He’s not that guy. But that’s what everybody loves about him.”

And he makes up for it with his smarts. Ehlinger did not fumble once on a designed run last season. Those times when he lowers his shoulder and pushes through for extra yardage? He’s trying to save those for third downs and goal-line runs. He can tell that’s part of the misconception of his game. Believe it or not, he’s not trying to take big hits or be reckless.

And he’ll get to prove that as a junior. Texas’ QB run game is still evolving and embracing more RPO elements. At Big 12 media days, Herman specifically cited Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield when talking about the importance of Ehlinger getting the ball out faster and from different arm angles on quick throws. When teams anticipate the run and load up the box, he needs to make them pay.

The first touchdown of Texas’ 2019 season? Ehlinger counted the defenders in the box, read Louisiana Tech’s linebacker and fired a pass out to Devin Duvernay, who walked in for a four-yard score. It wasn’t sexy. But it was smart.

Trevor Lawrence was the one who started the joke. The Clemson phenom was out in Southern California hanging with Ehlinger and some of college football’s top passers at Steve Clarkson’s QB retreat in late May. And when he saw a photo of the Texas QB from the event pop up on Twitter, he couldn’t help it.

“It was a terrible angle,” Ehlinger said with a laugh. “My neck just looked huge. Just a weird picture. I was showing everybody out there, like, ‘Man, what are they doing? C’mon.’ I looked like a fullback, for real.”

Lawrence’s reply upon seeing it: “You look like a unit, bro.”

“So then, of course,” Ehlinger said, “everybody started being like, ‘What up, Unit?’”

Ehlinger had fun catching up with Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa and those elite quarterbacks he’s known for years. He fits right in with that group. But there is truth to the joke and the nickname. Because Ehlinger does not look like those dudes.

Texas strength coach Yancy McKnight has seen Ehlinger achieve some freaky feats in the weight room. He maxed out around 520 pounds on squats this summer. He power cleans more than 300 pounds. McKnight says the weight he can handle on pull-ups and deadlifts is startling. He has a 36-inch vertical. He’s put on a solid 20 pounds since joining the program and is down to just 9 percent body fat. He looks better than ever now playing at 225 pounds.

“I think people don’t realize how thick he is and how heavy he is but also how lean he is,” McKnight said. “He is yoked. You kind of take it for granted a little bit.”

The focus, Ehlinger says, is explosive power for his lower body and upper-body flexibility. He’s a shining example of McKnight’s emphasis on lean mass. He wants players who are strong and powerful in their legs. For Ehlinger, that has always come naturally.

“I guess it’s just the way the Ehlinger family is built,” he said. “We have large thighs and quads. My brother (Texas freshman linebacker Jake Ehlinger) is the same way. He’s real thick.”

How fast is he? McKnight says Ehlinger is actually a “solid 4.6 guy.” He then quickly quips, “It’s not Michael Vick, but it’s not Tom Brady. For us, it’s just right.” Ehlinger does wear a Catapult GPS monitor during ballgames, and McKnight says that data has shown the QB can get up around 19 miles per hour in game action. But he does his damage in small bursts, not in breakaway sprints.

“It’s powerful,” McKnight said. “It’s not top-end fast, which I think is deceiving. Because you see him and those in and out cut movements that he does, they’re powerful and they’re efficient. There’s not a lot of wasted motion. He really has a natural feel for it.”

The work he’s put in under McKnight has helped him build up the armor needed to play the way he does. He learned to embrace the weight room before his sophomore year at Austin Westlake High School, hoping to gain an edge in his competition for the starting job. McKnight loves how meticulous Ehlinger is about all the little details, including his diet. And when your QB1 cares that much, he helps raise the standard for everybody else.

“But don’t let the cover of the book fool ya,” McKnight said. “Because he looks like he’s the perfect angel guy. Well, you know, he’s got a different side to him. Don’t let the exterior fool you that he’s not a tough dude. He’s got an edge about him. And that permeates through our whole building. People follow him because he does have that edge.”

Herman and McKnight are chasing a vision. They’re constructing an ultra-physical Texas program, one that plays relentlessly hard but smart football. They could not have inherited a better fit at quarterback for that ethos. The head coach argues Ehlinger improved more from 2017 to 2018 than any quarterback in college football. A big reason for that: He’s built and wired precisely for what they want the Longhorns to become.

“But I don’t think it would matter, to be honest with you,” McKnight said. “If he was 225 or if he was 205, he would probably play the way he plays.”

Everything that goes into making Ehlinger such an effective runner – strategy, mentality, strength, hard-headed persistence – came to a climax in that January goal-line standoff in New Orleans. Forget the numbers advantage down here. It’s a four-play war. The more powerful front wins, period.

“I was gonna give everything I had in that moment to get the ball in the end zone,” Ehlinger said.

And no way could that Texas team do it the easy way. When Ehlinger watches a clip of that series, he asks after the first play: “How was I not in there?” And maybe he was. But these Longhorns had been grinding out close wins all season long. Georgia still rallied later in that fourth quarter and made it a tense one-score game. The night could’ve flipped right there on fourth and inches. Georgia’s defense gave Ehlinger their best shot. And he withstood it and still snuck in.

“He really hurt us,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said afterward.

Weeks later in a TV interview, Matthew McConaughey shared the tale of what he witnessed down on the Longhorns’ sideline after Ehlinger finally punched it in.

“He’d just got in on fourth down. Georgia just loaded up, knew he was coming and nailed him and he still got in,” McConaughey recalled. “And he comes up on the sideline and everyone’s behind him rah-rahing him and he kinda looks over his shoulder and goes…”

And then McConaughey mimicked a casual, extremely Texan spit over his left shoulder before breaking out a wide grin.

“I’m like, ‘Yes. That’s our quarterback right there.’”

After it was all over, Ehlinger nodded to his head coach and told him, “Thank you for giving me the ball. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

This LSU game won’t be any different. He’s going to run. Probably a lot. You can’t tell him not to in a game like this. McKnight says you mess with the mojo when you do that. You mess with something this team thrives off. And on a week when Keaontay Ingram is this team’s only healthy running back, the Longhorns will need the QB run game more than ever.

“I tell guys all the time, everyone wants to be a lion until it’s time to do lion shit,” McKnight said. “That’s him. Everybody wants to talk about it. He’s gonna do it.”

The late Texas coach Darrell Royal liked to say you dance with who brung ya. In the biggest ballgames of Herman’s tenure, they’ve let Ehlinger dance. His 15-plus-carry efforts have usually been reserved for their toughest tests: Oklahoma, USC, Georgia. Against the Tigers and their loaded secondary, he could show off just how far he’s come as a passer. But those tough rushes in key moments may once again decide it.

Ehlinger is going to pick his spots. He’ll be smart about when he takes his hits. But nobody doubts what they’ve seen so many times: On Saturday night, he’ll do whatever it takes.

 

Sam is the fucking man

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Katfid54

Katfid54 8591

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7 minutes ago, Machinator said:

AUSTIN, Texas – Tim Beck really thought he had the perfect trick play up his sleeve. Texas, up 20-7 in the Sugar Bowl, was driving in for the kill against Georgia when the third quarter ended. So before the fourth quarter began, Texas’ offensive coordinator pitched the trick play to coach Tom Herman over the headset. Herman liked it. They both knew Sam Ehlinger liked that particular play, too.

There was just one problem. Beck laughs as he remembers the answer he heard when Texas reached the goal line and it was time for his trickery.

“Hey, Sam doesn’t wanna do that.”

“What?” a confused Beck asked.

“He says he doesn’t wanna do it.”

“Well, what does he wanna do?”

“He says give him the ball and he’s gonna score.”

Beck won’t say what the trick play call was. He’s saving it for another day. There was no stopping his quarterback at that point. He’d just scrambled on third and long, absorbed a hard hit and pushed his way down to the 1. And now he was going to finish the job.

Pretty sure this would've been the trick play there:

1vaAem.gif

 

They love running this near the EZ:

SlCJ9V.gif

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Hiphopopotamos

Hiphopopotamos 20865

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22 minutes ago, Machinator said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

AUSTIN, Texas – Tim Beck really thought he had the perfect trick play up his sleeve. Texas, up 20-7 in the Sugar Bowl, was driving in for the kill against Georgia when the third quarter ended. So before the fourth quarter began, Texas’ offensive coordinator pitched the trick play to coach Tom Herman over the headset. Herman liked it. They both knew Sam Ehlinger liked that particular play, too.

There was just one problem. Beck laughs as he remembers the answer he heard when Texas reached the goal line and it was time for his trickery.

“Hey, Sam doesn’t wanna do that.”

“What?” a confused Beck asked.

“He says he doesn’t wanna do it.”

“Well, what does he wanna do?”

“He says give him the ball and he’s gonna score.”

Beck won’t say what the trick play call was. He’s saving it for another day. There was no stopping his quarterback at that point. He’d just scrambled on third and long, absorbed a hard hit and pushed his way down to the 1. And now he was going to finish the job.

The Bulldogs knew exactly what was coming. Ehlinger ran it on first down. Georgia safety Richard LeCounte hit him in the chin and officials ruled him just short. He ran it on second down. Just short again. He ran it on third down. Georgia’s front penetrated and nearly stripped him. He ran it on fourth down. This time, LeCounte shot through the line. Ehlinger side-stepped him, fought through a leg tackle and fell forward. And he scored.

“He finally scored,” Beck said. “When he came off to the sideline, I was like, ‘Great job. But what took you so damn long? It took ya four times.’ He says, ‘Coach, that’s bullshit. I was in on the second one.’”

Empowering Ehlinger to end that defining drive in the Sugar Bowl victory was a moment Texas had been building up to all year. The buzzword this staff kept repeating throughout that offseason? Finish. The token Herman kept holding up in their locker room during the season? Poker chips. This was their all-in shove. And everyone on that sideline knew who to bet on.

Those powerful legs make Ehlinger a one-of-a-kind talent in college football. His running style is not statistically efficient, but it is effective. He’s not fast, but he’s quick enough. He has the upper body of a quarterback and the lower body of a fullback. He’s weirdly elusive, tough enough to take hard hits but creative in how he avoids them. And there’s just something about those hits, about that punishment, that gets him rolling.

“It’s a mentality,” Ehlinger said. “We’re gonna do everything we can to put the ball in the end zone. We’re gonna go the hardest we can every single time. And we’re gonna wait until you tap. If you don’t and you stop us, good job. But we’re gonna push you to that limit. Whatever it takes, I’m gonna put my body on the line.”

The numbers he put up last season prove just how uncommon he is. Here’s the list of college football players who have rushed for 15 or more touchdowns but less than 500 yards in one season since 2001: Sam Ehlinger. That’s it. Even better: Ehlinger is one of only two players to score 15 rushing TDs and average less than 3 yards per carry in a season in the last 60 years.

Remove the sacks and that yards per carry average would still only rank 72nd among FBS quarterbacks. But on designed runs, no QB was better at converting first downs or touchdowns than Ehlinger.

Herman and Beck try to carefully manage Ehlinger’s rushing workload. The head coach says they’re going to need it at “key points” this season. The first one is Saturday, when No. 6 LSU comes to town for the biggest Texas home game in a decade. And the No. 9 Longhorns are down to just one healthy running back. It’s time for Ehlinger to run right into another SEC foe determined to shut him down. Like Georgia, the defense will know exactly what’s coming. But that hasn’t stopped him yet.

After Texas’ loss to Maryland last September, Herman and Beck did not hesitate to stick with Ehlinger as their starter. And Ehlinger did not hesitate to tell Beck what needed to change. He ran five times and threw it 39 times in the stunning 34-29 loss.

“He was like, ‘Coach, run me. Run me,’” Beck recalled. “He gets in the flow of the game better that way, actually. He likes it. He likes to get hit or hit somebody and talk smack, and then all the sudden he’s all fired up and ready to go.”

As Texas figured out how to embrace that over the course of the season, this truly became Ehlinger’s offense. The Longhorns’ run game revolved around a few basic staples — power, counter, sweep, draw and reads/RPOs — that the sophomore executed confidently.

If you go back and watch all 136 of Ehlinger’s run plays in 2018, you’re not going to be wowed by a bunch of big gains. His longest run was an 18-yard scramble. No, it’s the productivity in short-yardage situations that really shines. He’s the reason why Texas went 12-of-15 on fourth downs last season, second-best nationally. He gained first downs or touchdowns on 47 percent of his designed runs. On those designed runs when Texas needed to gain five yards or less, Ehlinger converted 74 percent of the time.  Texas scored on 23 of 26 drives in which he got at least one carry in the red zone, with 19 touchdowns.

There’s no big secret behind that effectiveness. Ehlinger insists this is simple stuff. The QB run game creates and exploits a simple numbers advantage. When Texas’ much-improved offensive line got a hat on a hat and blocked it right, they created plenty of space for Ehlinger to scoot. The first of his three touchdowns against Oklahoma last October is a prime example. When you can create this 8-on-6 situation, Ehlinger is going to punish a defense.

“A lot of the time, on some of the power stuff, I’m just running through arm tackles,” he said. “It’s really efficient because everyone’s covered. Sometimes there’s that one guy I have to beat. But we gain that upper edge with the quarterback run game because they lose a hat and don’t have an extra guy to account for me.

“It’s just a numbers game. The efficiency you see, it’s there because it’s designed that way. It’s extremely simple math. We have the numbers and we’re doing a good job up front of getting hats on hats to where they don’t have enough numbers.”

Ehlinger logged 39 broken tackles on run plays last season (10th-most among FBS QBs) and 358 rushing yards after contact, according to data compiled by Sports Info Solutions. Beck liked the improvements he made as a scrambler, too, in picking up 240 yards on 44 escapes. He saw better pocket presence and more north-south running.

“He got smarter,” Beck said, “and we got smarter about using him. We learned more about who he is and what he likes to do.”

But Texas coaches are cautious about this ability of his. Ehlinger had to exit two games last season with injuries to his throwing shoulder, both on runs. The coaches aren’t the only ones in his ear. “I’m just trying to get my man to protect himself,” Texas wideout Collin Johnson said during fall camp. “He always likes running people over out there.” Herman smiled when asked recently about finding that balance and said, “For three years, there’s been that discussion.” Ehlinger’s take on this is one he’s probably argued repeatedly with the staff over those three years. He senses there’s a common misconception about how many hits he’s actually taking in a game. The physical toll of those run plays, he says, isn’t as bad as people might think.

“I mean, how many huge hits do you see?” Ehlinger said.

Not many. He figured out how to avoid those collisions as a sophomore. There’s something a little different about the way Ehlinger navigates through traffic. He can’t really explain the moves he makes. They’re all instinctive. The way he changes direction, cuts back and slips past defenders is subtle and calculated. We’re not talking big jukes and jump-cuts. This is dodge, duck, dip, dive, dodge. Sure, it might look slow from afar. In the heat of the moment, it takes quick feet and good eyes.

But it’s more than that. Ehlinger says he’s learned how to anticipate the speed and momentum of oncoming defenders. When a guy is running at you 20 miles an hour, he reasons, it’s hard for them to change direction at the last second. A small but quick sidestep can make them whiff. He’s always calculating where he wants to go and how to fool them into going where he’s not.

“I understand that I’m not gonna be the fastest,” he said. “I understand that I’m not the strongest. So I use that against my opponent. I use their momentum and their speed and their strength against them.”

And that leads to things like his dead-leg move, which earns a lot of grief from bewildered teammates. He can’t explain where that stop-start maneuver came from. But shoot, it worked a lot last season.

“I’m telling ya, Sam Ehlinger is not sexy,” Beck said with a laugh. “He’s not! He’s not that guy. But that’s what everybody loves about him.”

And he makes up for it with his smarts. Ehlinger did not fumble once on a designed run last season. Those times when he lowers his shoulder and pushes through for extra yardage? He’s trying to save those for third downs and goal-line runs. He can tell that’s part of the misconception of his game. Believe it or not, he’s not trying to take big hits or be reckless.

And he’ll get to prove that as a junior. Texas’ QB run game is still evolving and embracing more RPO elements. At Big 12 media days, Herman specifically cited Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield when talking about the importance of Ehlinger getting the ball out faster and from different arm angles on quick throws. When teams anticipate the run and load up the box, he needs to make them pay.

The first touchdown of Texas’ 2019 season? Ehlinger counted the defenders in the box, read Louisiana Tech’s linebacker and fired a pass out to Devin Duvernay, who walked in for a four-yard score. It wasn’t sexy. But it was smart.

Trevor Lawrence was the one who started the joke. The Clemson phenom was out in Southern California hanging with Ehlinger and some of college football’s top passers at Steve Clarkson’s QB retreat in late May. And when he saw a photo of the Texas QB from the event pop up on Twitter, he couldn’t help it.

“It was a terrible angle,” Ehlinger said with a laugh. “My neck just looked huge. Just a weird picture. I was showing everybody out there, like, ‘Man, what are they doing? C’mon.’ I looked like a fullback, for real.”

Lawrence’s reply upon seeing it: “You look like a unit, bro.”

“So then, of course,” Ehlinger said, “everybody started being like, ‘What up, Unit?’”

Ehlinger had fun catching up with Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa and those elite quarterbacks he’s known for years. He fits right in with that group. But there is truth to the joke and the nickname. Because Ehlinger does not look like those dudes.

Texas strength coach Yancy McKnight has seen Ehlinger achieve some freaky feats in the weight room. He maxed out around 520 pounds on squats this summer. He power cleans more than 300 pounds. McKnight says the weight he can handle on pull-ups and deadlifts is startling. He has a 36-inch vertical. He’s put on a solid 20 pounds since joining the program and is down to just 9 percent body fat. He looks better than ever now playing at 225 pounds.

“I think people don’t realize how thick he is and how heavy he is but also how lean he is,” McKnight said. “He is yoked. You kind of take it for granted a little bit.”

The focus, Ehlinger says, is explosive power for his lower body and upper-body flexibility. He’s a shining example of McKnight’s emphasis on lean mass. He wants players who are strong and powerful in their legs. For Ehlinger, that has always come naturally.

“I guess it’s just the way the Ehlinger family is built,” he said. “We have large thighs and quads. My brother (Texas freshman linebacker Jake Ehlinger) is the same way. He’s real thick.”

How fast is he? McKnight says Ehlinger is actually a “solid 4.6 guy.” He then quickly quips, “It’s not Michael Vick, but it’s not Tom Brady. For us, it’s just right.” Ehlinger does wear a Catapult GPS monitor during ballgames, and McKnight says that data has shown the QB can get up around 19 miles per hour in game action. But he does his damage in small bursts, not in breakaway sprints.

“It’s powerful,” McKnight said. “It’s not top-end fast, which I think is deceiving. Because you see him and those in and out cut movements that he does, they’re powerful and they’re efficient. There’s not a lot of wasted motion. He really has a natural feel for it.”

The work he’s put in under McKnight has helped him build up the armor needed to play the way he does. He learned to embrace the weight room before his sophomore year at Austin Westlake High School, hoping to gain an edge in his competition for the starting job. McKnight loves how meticulous Ehlinger is about all the little details, including his diet. And when your QB1 cares that much, he helps raise the standard for everybody else.

“But don’t let the cover of the book fool ya,” McKnight said. “Because he looks like he’s the perfect angel guy. Well, you know, he’s got a different side to him. Don’t let the exterior fool you that he’s not a tough dude. He’s got an edge about him. And that permeates through our whole building. People follow him because he does have that edge.”

Herman and McKnight are chasing a vision. They’re constructing an ultra-physical Texas program, one that plays relentlessly hard but smart football. They could not have inherited a better fit at quarterback for that ethos. The head coach argues Ehlinger improved more from 2017 to 2018 than any quarterback in college football. A big reason for that: He’s built and wired precisely for what they want the Longhorns to become.

“But I don’t think it would matter, to be honest with you,” McKnight said. “If he was 225 or if he was 205, he would probably play the way he plays.”

Everything that goes into making Ehlinger such an effective runner – strategy, mentality, strength, hard-headed persistence – came to a climax in that January goal-line standoff in New Orleans. Forget the numbers advantage down here. It’s a four-play war. The more powerful front wins, period.

“I was gonna give everything I had in that moment to get the ball in the end zone,” Ehlinger said.

And no way could that Texas team do it the easy way. When Ehlinger watches a clip of that series, he asks after the first play: “How was I not in there?” And maybe he was. But these Longhorns had been grinding out close wins all season long. Georgia still rallied later in that fourth quarter and made it a tense one-score game. The night could’ve flipped right there on fourth and inches. Georgia’s defense gave Ehlinger their best shot. And he withstood it and still snuck in.

“He really hurt us,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said afterward.

Weeks later in a TV interview, Matthew McConaughey shared the tale of what he witnessed down on the Longhorns’ sideline after Ehlinger finally punched it in.

“He’d just got in on fourth down. Georgia just loaded up, knew he was coming and nailed him and he still got in,” McConaughey recalled. “And he comes up on the sideline and everyone’s behind him rah-rahing him and he kinda looks over his shoulder and goes…”

And then McConaughey mimicked a casual, extremely Texan spit over his left shoulder before breaking out a wide grin.

“I’m like, ‘Yes. That’s our quarterback right there.’”

After it was all over, Ehlinger nodded to his head coach and told him, “Thank you for giving me the ball. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

This LSU game won’t be any different. He’s going to run. Probably a lot. You can’t tell him not to in a game like this. McKnight says you mess with the mojo when you do that. You mess with something this team thrives off. And on a week when Keaontay Ingram is this team’s only healthy running back, the Longhorns will need the QB run game more than ever.

“I tell guys all the time, everyone wants to be a lion until it’s time to do lion shit,” McKnight said. “That’s him. Everybody wants to talk about it. He’s gonna do it.”

The late Texas coach Darrell Royal liked to say you dance with who brung ya. In the biggest ballgames of Herman’s tenure, they’ve let Ehlinger dance. His 15-plus-carry efforts have usually been reserved for their toughest tests: Oklahoma, USC, Georgia. Against the Tigers and their loaded secondary, he could show off just how far he’s come as a passer. But those tough rushes in key moments may once again decide it.

Ehlinger is going to pick his spots. He’ll be smart about when he takes his hits. But nobody doubts what they’ve seen so many times: On Saturday night, he’ll do whatever it takes.

 

Thats my QB.  Fantastic article about a great QB/leader/kid.  

 

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sushihorn

sushihorn 3233

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Quote

“But don’t let the cover of the book fool ya,” McKnight said. “Because he looks like he’s the perfect angel guy. Well, you know, he’s got a different side to him. Don’t let the exterior fool you that he’s not a tough dude. He’s got an edge about him. And that permeates through our whole building. People follow him because he does have that edge.”

Made me think of this:

 

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45513

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OU1: 

24/35 for 314 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INT

19 carries for 72 yards, 3 TD

 

OU2:

23/36 for 349 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT

15 carries for 42 yards, 2 TD

 

UGA: 

19/27 for 169 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT

21 carries for 64 yards, 3 TD
 

 

So, in the Longhorns' 3 biggest games of the year, Sam went 66/98 for 832 yards, threw 4 TDs, 1 INT, and rushed 55 times for 178 yards and 8 TDs, but he doesn't show up in big games.  Got it.

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Lhorn

Lhorn 4884

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tebowphone.gif

Lol. I’m sure that they have dreams of Sam being kept all night answering his phone every 2 minutes. “Hello? Hello? Is anyone there? Please stop calling me. I have an important game tomorrow and I’m not able to get any sleep!”

Diabolical!


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Zavala

Zavala 1384

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9 hours ago, BigXII said:

Been reading that the 4 goalline running plays against Georgia in the sugar bowl was sam ehlinger calling his own play. The coaches wanted to run a finesse play but ehlinger said "give me the ball and I'll score" and came through on his word.

What a fucking badass.

I was so mad the coaches did that lmao it was him

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SEC

SEC 1174

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Good for you, but from what I saw, DKR always called him James when interviewed.

last time I saw him was in 1969 when he & the team got off the plane at old Mueller Airport after beating Arkansas in the “Game of the Century “.

I guess it was a personal nickname

The story of how I was introduced to him was goddamn wild. My cousin's husband has ties to MLB, she lives in california so we rarely see each other. About 15 or so years ago, she's at my sister's wedding and is talking to me and finds out I'm big into UT sports. She goes "You need to come to california and talk to Jimmy, he's a big UT fan. His son plays pro baseball and was a baseball player at UT."

So flash forward a couple of years, and I'm in california and hit up my cousin. Once again, she's like, "let me give Jimmy a call, you should talk to him." Entire time I'm oblivious until we meet, and I'm like "son in baseball... jimmy... james? JAMES STREET?!" She had no idea he was a QB at Texas or anything, she thought he was just a huge UT nut lol.

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jinx

jinx 2635

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1 hour ago, Armybrat said:

Good for you, but from what I saw, DKR always called him James when interviewed.

last time I saw him was in 1969 when he & the team got off the plane at old Mueller Airport after beating Arkansas in the “Game of the Century “.

Old man internet slap fight.  Not sure I have witnessed this before.  

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