As of this writing, Sam Ehlinger will play tomorrow versus Kansas. Ehlinger was out for most of the Baylor game and the second half of the Iowa State game because of a right shoulder injury. That’s almost 15 percent of the season that Ehlinger has missed so far. The initial injury to the shoulder and the re-injury occurred when Ehlinger was running the ball. The threat of quarterback runs are a major component of the offense that Texas runs now.  Ehlinger’s health and availability is an issue that Tom Herman could be dealing with for what’s the remainder of this and the next two seasons.

Speaking of backup quarterbacks, the new redshirt rule allows a player to appear in up to four games without burning a year of eligibility. Shane Buechele has appeared in two games this season.  Let’s say Ehlinger goes down tomorrow with a season ending injury, and Buechele leads the Horns to a victory.  Heaven forbid that Ehlinger goes down for the year, but if he does I assume Buechele will end up appearing in five games this year and use his junior year of eligibility.

I wonder if Buechele would prefer to redshirt this year and transfer to another school with two years of eligibility remaining. I also wonder, with three games left at most, if there’s any chance we’ll see either Cameron Rising or Casey Thompson this season. They could play in any or all the games remaining without using a year of eligibility. This is the kind of thing that I think about before I go to sleep at night. Do you think there’s something wrong with me?

While we’re on the subject of redshirts and eligibility, freshman Ayodele Adeoye (add to dictionary), a four-star recruit has appeared in two games, Texas Tech and Iowa State. Adeoye has been impressive in practice and it would be nice if he could be an upgrade now over Anthony Wheeler but I haven’t noticed him on the field and officially he has no tackles.  Keep an eye out for him against Kansas.

One other interesting note on red shirts and then I’ll move on. Receiver John Burt has played in three games but he will definitely be redshirted this year. If Collin Johnson and or Lil’ Jordan Humphrey leave after this season for the NFL , I hope Burt can compensate for those losses and be the difference maker we had hoped for after he led the team in receptions in 2015.

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Mensa-boy Tom Herman needs to do a better job of clock management. After Andrew Beck recovered Iowa State’s onside kick there was 1:33 left in the game. Iowa State had one time out left. If Herman had instructed Buechele to take a knee four times, there would have been less than :10 left when Iowa State got the ball back down by 14 with no timeouts. Instead, stupidly, Herman called a running play.  Daniel Young fumbled and Iowa State got the ball back with 1:26 left with one timeout. Bad things still could have happened. Luckily they didn’t, but if Herman makes another flub like this, it could be costly.

Wouldn’t it be something—after nine years in the wilderness—if by Friday around 2:30pm or so the Horns had secured a spot in the Big 12 Championship game.

I don’t know if I can watch.  Okay, I probably will.

Sorry that this a bit brief, but it’s post-Thanksgiving dinner at my house and I’m going to try and fall asleep watching the Cowboys and Redskins.

HooK ‘Em,

W.E.

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