ARLINGTON – Going into his third season at Texas, Tom Herman has a team that will move on from the motto “Prove us right” to “prove it again.”
“Prove it again” is not the official motto. But that’s what the Longhorns face. With the Big 12’s best returning quarterback in Sam Ehlinger, UT is coming off a 10-win season that ended a desert-dry decade.
Herman claims last year’s mantra wasn’t meant for anyone but the Texas players and coaches, but it nonetheless became public.
“That’s sort of an everlasting term, ‘prove us right,’” Texas center Zach Shackelford said Tuesday at Big 12 media day. “We really don’t have a motto yet this season. ‘Prove us right’ is something that we need to do within the program and the locker room.”
As a youngster, Shackelford was an Ohio State fan and hated Texas. That put him in a majority. Nearly a dozen schools claim UT as their top rival. Some people like to see the world burn; many college football fans like to see Burnt Orange burnt.
“It’s irrelevant, what other people say about our program,” Herman said Tuesday during his time on the podium. “It doesn’t really faze us. I do know that our guys file certain things away where the other team was disrespectful and that gave us motivation.”
Herman, as does any coach, wants to treat the past as history. The now and the next practice or next game are what’s important.
All that 10 victories did was brighten the spotlight, raise expectations and paint an even bigger bull’s eye. For Ehlinger’s 90-minute breakout media session, about 50 reporters and 14 cameras occupied not-enough space. The crowd around the junior QB equaled the folks gathered for any of the four other schools (Iowa State, Baylor, West Virginia, Kansas State).
The high heat is on Texas. That means, in the viral media world, a shot at UT garners more hits than, say, a shot at oh, maybe … Louisiana Tech.
Terry Bradshaw was speaking at Louisiana Tech, his alma mater, when he started ranting at how Texas signs so many five-star quarterbacks. (That statement might come as a shock to UT fans who watched a series of failures after the Vince Young-Colt McCoy years.) Also keep in mind that LSU will play at Texas in Week Two, so the Longhorns are on the minds of fans in the Bayou State.
“I never understood why players would want to go and stack up, like Texas,” Bradshaw said. “One year, they signed three [five-star] quarterbacks. Two are now gone, and one is playing, and he ain’t that good.”
Bradshaw couldn’t spell “Sam” if you spotted him the S and the A. (A tip of the laptop keyboard to former Cowboys linebacker Thomas Henderson for the ability to paraphrase his feline spelling challenge regarding the former Steelers quarterback.)
Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield also turned Ehlinger into a pinata.The Sooners quarterback, who is hated by the fans of every team he doesn’t play for, was being interviewed by a Norman radio station when the subject of Texas “being back” was broached.
“I’m sick of that crap,” Mayfield said. Because it was a radio interview, it’s not clear if the Heisman Trophy winner grabbed his crotch for emphasis.
Mayfield apparently still carries a log-sized chip on his shoulder because Texas never recruited him. For an Austin native, that stings. Mayfield, who played at Lake Travis High School, then went school days by ripping Ehlinger’s high school alma mater, Westlake.
“He couldn’t even beat Lake Travis, so I don’t really care … his opinion on anything winning,” Mayfield said. “You know, Westlake’s a great program, but the two best quarterbacks to come out of there are Drew Brees and Nick Foles. Sam can stay down there in Texas.
“That’ll stir the pot. He doesn’t like me, and I hope he knows I don’t like him either.”
Meow.
For what it’s worth, Ehlinger was diplomatic when asked if he likes Mayfield. After a pause, he audibled to the high-road play. “I respect him as a quarterback.”
Ehlinger also claims that the slings and arrows that come his way don’t leave a mark. He said that he ignores them and that the recent rips don’t provide any motivation.
His coach disagrees.
“Sam loves to play with a chip on his shoulder, and I think he will use this to crank it up a notch,” Herman said.
Ehlinger, along with Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts, Houston’s D’Eriq King and Michigan’s Shea Patterson, were camp counselors at the Elite 11 Finals recently at The Star in Frisco. The college QBs went through simulated NFL pro days drills. By most accounts, Ehlinger was the most impressive.
NFL Network analyst Bucky Brooks was so impressed he tweeted, “The football world might be sleeping on (Ehlinger’s long-term potential). He throws it much better than most observers suggest and his footwork/eyes/arm strength in a workout would earn high marks from coaches.”
Ehilinger figuratively started holding a 2-iron aloft in a lightning storm when he led Texas to its 10th victory, a satisfying defeat of Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. From the podium after being named the game’s outstanding player, Ehlinger raised the ire of Orange Blood Haters by announcing over the P.A. system, “We’re baaaack.”
”Texas is back” has become a punch line ever since McCoy’s shoulder broke and the Longhorns program imploded after the 2009 Rose Bowl. The Sporting News has projected the Longhorns to make the College Football Playoff. Ehlinger is the cover boy for The Bible – Texas Football’s annual preview magazine.
Ehlinger echoes his coach’s philosophy about flipping the calendar from 2018 to 2019. Hype is good for fans and the media.
“We’ve got to block all that out,” Ehlinger said. “We have to eliminate the noise and the distractions. We can’t deviate from the path we’re on.”