" .... Nobody was talking about Texas’ quarterback room among that elite company five years ago. To fully appreciate Ewers’ pledge and what it means for Texas’ future at quarterback, remember what that room used to look like. Ewers’ head coach knows better than anybody. Texas was pretty darn desperate at the quarterback position when Dodge was on staff as a young quality control coach in 2013 and 2014.
“It’s a night-and-day difference,” Dodge said. “They’ve done a great job of putting all their energy in that position, because that’s where it starts.”
The Mack Brown era ended with Garrett Gilbert busting, David Ash getting knocked out for the season and Case McCoy somehow leading a run to nine wins. When Charlie Strong took over after 2013, the quarterback situation he and his new staff inherited was troubling. They had Ash, a junior with a concerning history of concussions. They had Tyrone Swoopes, a sophomore who eventually became a tight end in the NFL. They had touted freshman Jerrod Heard, who would later move to receiver. They had walk-ons Trey Holtz and Logan Vinklarek. And they had converted receiver Miles Onyegbule, who tore his ACL in preseason camp.
Ash got hurt on his first hit in Strong’s first game. His college career was over. Swoopes had to be the guy as a sophomore. He wasn’t ready. Heard had to be the guy as a redshirt freshman in 2015. He wasn’t ready. So Shane Buechele had to be the guy as a true freshman in 2016. And he was solid. If Buechele had showed up a year earlier, he might’ve been able to buy Strong more time.
But instead, Herman took over in 2017. Buechele dealt with injuries as a sophomore, so then Ehlinger had to be the guy as a true freshman. He had some big-time moments and some rough ones. Because as Texas learned many times in that four-year stretch, freshmen are gonna freshmen.
The fundamental problem during this entire period: Texas kept changing its offense. Bryan Harsin, Major Applewhite, Shawn Watson (and Joe Wickline!), Jay Norvell, Sterlin Gilbert, Tim Beck and Herman — that’s seven offensive play callers in seven years. Normal quarterback development cannot occur under those conditions. Watson and Swoopes both were benched after 14 games. Buechele and Gilbert only got one season together. You’re never really building anything if you’re always starting over.
“You feel bad for those quarterbacks just in the sense that it’s hard to get in a rhythm when you don’t have the same coordinator year in and year out,” Dodge said. “That’s tough in college football nowadays. It was new quarterback coaches, new play callers, new systems. And the guys I think about like Tyrone and Jerrod, those guys were very talented, young, raw, had great upside. But when you’re that young, you need stability in an offense. You need years and years under a guy. That’s just something those kids never had a chance, never got that opportunity.”
Those young passers were thrown into starting roles too soon and saddled with unfairly high expectations. And they had to be great. Because throughout those lean years, the backups didn’t work out. Connor Brewer, Jalen Overstreet, Kai Locksley and Matthew Merrick didn’t make an impact, and all transferred. Texas tried to bring in USC’s Max Wittek, the rarest graduate transfer of all: one who failed to graduate on time. The staff bet on Zach Gentry, a 6-foot-8 recruit out of New Mexico, but he flipped to Michigan and immediately became a tight end there. They tried to flip Kyler Murray, which proved to be an infamous waste of time.
Herman and Ehlinger finally brought an end to all the desperation and indecision. Picking Ehlinger over Buechele in 2018 was a difficult choice that has seriously paid off. Ehlinger quickly became Texas’ most beloved star since Colt McCoy, an impressive leader who got better every year, playing through injuries and playing his best in big games. When you finally find that quarterback who can be The Guy, it changes your program’s trajectory. And it also buys you so much more time to develop behind him.
“I think Sam was the right guy at the right time for Texas and Coach Herman,” said Dodge, whose father Todd Dodge coached Ehlinger at Austin Westlake. “Just with his athletic ability and how he plays the game, but on top of it with him, it’s his intangibles. He’s an amazing leader on and off the field. Guys follow him. He’s got some crap to him. And that’s what you want in the quarterback position. I think he’s kind of laid the blueprint for what the position of quarterback should be played like at the University of Texas.”
And when you finally get it right with a dude like Ehlinger, you stop hearing the narratives about who you passed on. Maybe Mack Brown can finally forgive this scribe for sending out that one viral tweet about Jameis Winston claiming he always wanted a Texas offer. Brown still gives me grief about it whenever our paths cross. He probably won’t forget it. But he could!
Herman deserves credit, no doubt, and it’s not surprising he pulled off this quarterback room turnaround. At Ohio State, he helped coach up and recruit arguably college football’s most stacked quarterback group of the decade: Braxton Miller, J.T. Barrett, Cardale Jones, Joe Burrow. Since arriving in Austin, he and his coaches and recruiting staffers have made the right evaluations and succeeded in landing their targets. They haven’t chased transfers. And they hadn’t dealt with decommitments until Monday night, when longtime 2021 commit Jalen Milroe responded to Ewers’ pledge by flipping to Alabama. Although that move was a surprise, it does make a lot of sense given just how crowded Texas’ quarterback room is about to get. ....