1. Ehlinger is infamous for NOT looking beyond his first two options which generally tend to be LJH and Collin Johnson. I will note that partially because of this Collin Johnson almost certainly has a better season than LJH next year. 2. LJH ranks 10th all time in career receptions (25 behind Collin Johnson). Jaxon Shipley only had Gilbert, Case McCoy, Ash and Swoopes throwing him the ball, and he finished 3rd all-time behind only Jordan Shipley and Roy Williams. LJH is behind Quan Cosby, Mike Davis, Mike Adams, Kwame Cavil and BJ Johnson in career receptions. 3. LJH did have the 5th best single season in receptions last year. He is behind Jordan Shipley twice, Kwame Cavil and Quan Cosby. I expect he will be likely surpassed by Collin Johnson next year and drop to 6th. 4. LJH did have the 3rd most receiving yards in a single season last year. This is by far his best stat. However, he is not in the top 11 for career yards. 5. LJH is tied for the 7th most touchdowns in a single season, but is not in the top 12 all time in touchdown receptions. In short, it is fair to say he had an all time season and probably one of the five best seasons any Texas receiver has ever had. However, looking at the totality of his career, a single great season makes his inclusion in the top 10 debatable. It should also be noted that Texas rarely threw the ball after Bobby Layne until Mack Brown. There are a lot of great receivers (Cotton Speyer being one) that will never have the stats to back up how good they were due to our primarily running offenses.
JF, value your opinion on these things. Do you think his weight at the combine had an impact of him not running? IMO he didn’t play at 200 or more. Pretty smart to have him put on 10 pounds for the measurables.
Htown- Career stats depends on a Lot of variables. LJH yes had an amazing season- 3rd all time, but I'm not a stats guy per se. From what I've seen in many years of Texas football, give me Jordan Shipley, LJH, and Mike Adams, and then Roy, in that order and I'll win a national championship. Well LJH's agent should be fired. Had LJH stayed records would crash, rings would be won, and he'd be drafted for sure much higher.
Ehlinger made LJH who he was, with accurate passes to him over the middle, placed where he could catch the ball, even though he was covered. Also, wide receiver screens. LJH wasn't ever wide open running 50 yards downfield, that I recall. M Brown beat people so badly that he had 5-7 yards to adjust to the pass (including go-get-it acceleration), which made the pass appear to be perfect. Most of Ehlinger's missed "open" receivers 50 yards downfield had 3 feet on the defender, where it really would take a perfect NFL pass to complete.
Possibly, but there are 3 mitigating factors. 1. First someone has to actually get a solid hit in on a very evasive target. 2. Are we acting like he's never been tackled before in his career? 3. Are we acting like it's still legal to hit quarterbacks in the NFL?
There will be times in the NFL he has to stay in the pocket, deliver the ball, and take a hit by a 340 DT. That just didn't happen at OU. I do think he grew some from his freshman year at A&M where he looked at most 5'8". But I'd say it still remains to be seen whether he can stay healthy taking hits that are coming. There are teams willing to take the 15 yd penalty early in a game just to knock the living crap out of him and see what he's got. They'll roll him a lot which will help and something the Titans should have done with Vince. But to think he's not going to get hit is nuts. LBs in the NFL are close to as fast and they'll have a running start.
Omenihu and Boyd are it so far. LJH may be a UFA. I had hoped he would come back for his senior year and improve on his solid junior year, but it is what it is.
Absolutely spot on excellent post. He’s going to get hit. He’s going to make big mistakes and lose games. We saw how that went, once. Multiply by 12 and welcome to the league. White collar Doug Flutie with a Twitter following.
Thanks and yes I think that's exactly what was going on. After the Combine, he cut and then ran at aggy day at the lighter weight. Players almost always run faster at their local Pro Day. They are also usually hand-timed there vs electronic timing at the combine.
Do you agree or do you think this is spin? Spoiler I think it almost has to be true, given we made it to the Conf Ttitle Game then then the Sugar Bowl, which we won. Because, if not, how do you otherwise explain that?
No, don't agree and I am very surprised G Johnson wasn't picked. I do feel for LJ but Johnson surprises me the most.
LJH took a chance and he didn't get drafted. It's the reason kids play football. It's the dream, to play in the NFL. Maybe he'll play or won't, but coming back to Texas wouldn't have made him any faster/bigger/all the right tools for the NFL. Too many receivers built the same way but faster. Don't blame him, took the shot....
