Texas Football: Sam Ehlinger Looks to be on Same Page with New OC
It would be understandable for a quarterback going into his fourth and final season as a starter to be a little leery of changing offensive schemes.
After all, it means asking a signal caller to throw out portions of the playbook he spent years getting to know intimately and in some cases starting over with only one year to learn the new system.
However, that's not the case for Texas' Sam Ehlinger. The NCAA's active leader in career passing yards is embracing the changes brought in by new offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich.
Yurcich comes to Texas after spending a season mentoring Heisman finalist Justin Fields at Ohio State. Before that he was responsible for a half-decade of potent offenses in Stillwater, serving as the Oklahoma State OC from 2013-18.
"I love coach Yurcich so far," Ehlinger said. "He has a lot of really really great ideas for getting playmakers into space, playing the tempo and using our incredible athletes to the best of their ability."
For Ehlinger the process is still ongoing. He is learning as much as possible through virtual meetings, but understands that much of the work will have to be done in person, throwing against live defenses.
"We're continuing to install," Ehlinger said. "And obviously things were kind of kind of halted because we didn't get a chance to start spring ball. And so I don't really know exactly what the full playbook looks like."
While Ehlinger doesn't yet have a full picture of the playbook, it's clear he thinks a lot of Yurcich as a person.
It's been an incredible relationships up to this point. His football IQ is extremely high. His love for the game is extremely high. He's a great dad as well so it's a great model for my life. I'm really excited to continue to build that relationship.
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