Texas names Sam Ehlinger starting QB before season opener against Maryland football

Texas head coach Tom Herman announced Monday that “barring any sort of catastrophe,” sophomore Sam Ehlinger will start at quarterback against Maryland football on Sept. 1.

Much like the Terps, the Longhorns had another offseason-long quarterback battle. Last year, then-sophomore Shane Buechele won the job but suffered a bruised shoulder in the season opener, opening the door for Ehlinger to start six games as a true freshman.

Once Buechele was healthy, Texas had a bit of a revolving door behind center. The two quarterbacks often alternated starts and occasionally even series within games. Neither Ehlinger nor Buechele was able to separate himself from the other.

Though he started one fewer game than Buechele, Ehlinger led the Longhorns with 1,915 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions in addition to 385 yards and two touchdowns on 104 rushing attempts.

Herman said the Longhorns are confident they can win games with either one at quarterback, but they feel that Ehlinger gives them the best shot to win Week 1. Maryland and Texas kick off at noon on Sept. 1. We’ll find out if he’s right a little more than three hours later.

In other news

The Terps will honor Jordan McNair in a handful of ways this season, and some others in the coming years.

Former Maryland football player DeAndre Lane gave InsideMDSports his fair and balanced thoughts on the allegations surrounding the program.

Five of Maryland football’s 2018 opponents are ranked in the AP Preseason Top 25.

Maryland men’s basketball’s full conference schedule will be released later today, but we already know, thanks to Jon Rothstein, that the Terps will host Penn State on Dec. 1 and head to Purdue five days later.

DJ Durkin is still on administrative leave. As such, the UMD Dairy has renamed Terpin’ Durkin Crunch to Pretzel Logic.