Sam Ehlinger protects Tom Herman saying Texas did ‘great job’

Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger thinks the Longhorns did a great job despite going 7-5 and falling short of expectations as a preseason Top-10 team.

Texas was a popular preseason playoff pick but they barely made a bowl game as one of the biggest busts of the year. Despite the 7-5 season that began with a No. 10 ranking in the preseason poll after the momentum of a Sugar Bowl win, the Longhorns signal-caller is trying to be positive.

Sam Ehlinger tried his best to provide some perspective on only winning seven games. Ehlinger, via AP’s Jim Vertuno, said he thinks Texas to a great job overall considering where the program had been before Tom Herman took over three seasons ago.

"“Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you had told Texas fans three years ago that we would have seven wins and headed to a bowl game and had a chance to win eight, I think people would be pretty happy … Overall, we did a great job.”"

Texas is barely better than they were in the Charlie Strong era, but the bar was set a lot higher than that. I’m not going to knock Ehlinger for saying this. He’s a great team leader, one of the best in the nation, so he’s not going to throw anyone under the bus. He just wishes he’d have thrown a few more touchdowns and Texas was able to win a few more games. It’s what any competitor would say.

His comments are also supportive of Herman who should take the brunt of the criticism for the team’s record. Ehlinger is doing his best to shield Herman and protect him from the fans who expect Texas to win the Big 12 and compete for national titles. They’ve waited long enough for Rome to be built. But how much time should Herman need to rebuild Texas from what he inherited from Strong?

In the three seasons that preceded Herman’s arrival in Austin, Texas won 16 total games in Strong’s three-year tenure. His first year saw Texas go 6-7 followed by back-to-back 5-7 seasons.

If Texas loses their bowl game, they will fall to 7-6, which is what Herman’s record was in his first year with the program. Is this going to be the norm and make last year’s 10-win season the outlier? Okay, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but if Year 3 saw regression like this, Rome would have had new leaders too.

I’d still be optimistic 10 wins will be more like the norm with Herman at Texas than this season has produced, but changes will have to be made on his staff. That just comes with the job when you fall short of expectations. Herman is locked in at Texas with a large buyout and he’s not being fired, so that’s a non-starter. But he can make some changes, perhaps sweeping changes, especially on defense where Todd Orlando’s unit ranks No. 105 in total defense entering Week 14.

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