Inside Slant

The Sports Xchange

October 23, 2018 at 9:25 pm.

Rested Longhorns ready to get back to work

Texas climbed from seventh to sixth in the Associated Press poll last week without even taking the field and continues to employ its “1-0” mantra heading into Saturday’s game at up-and-down Oklahoma State.

All the talk in the Longhorns’ open week has been about the status of starting quarterback Sam Ehlinger, who suffered a sprained throwing shoulder on the opening drive of Texas’ 23-17 win over Baylor on Oct. 13 and is continuing to rehab the injury in hopes of playing, and likely starting, on Saturday.

“There’s a protocol, if you will, for overhead throwers with AC sprains that we want to make sure that we adhere to as aggressively as possible without making sure between have any major setbacks that could be lingering,” Texas coach Tom Herman said about Ehlinger’s injury and rehab.

“We probably won’t know in terms of Ehlinger’s game status until Thursday, I would imagine. But if he’s healthy and he’s himself, then certainly he’ll start.”

Herman must take every report Ehlinger gives on his own condition with a grain of salt because his sophomore quarterback will do just about anything to be back on the field.

“We talked awhile about him being very honest with us in terms of his pain because there’s an element to his game that’s different than a lot of quarterbacks,” Herman said.

“If we’re out there playing cautious and tentative and trying to protect things, I think that plays into the overall effectiveness of him and his game for us.”

Texas (6-1, 4-0 Big 12) has won six straight games and moved to the top of the conference standings but Herman said that means nothing to him and his team as it affects their daily preparation.

“It is completely and utterly inconsequential where we’re ranked through seven games of the season,” Herman said.

“The only thing we talk about is that we have earned everybody’s best shot, so if we think we’re going to get anything less than everybody’s best shot from here on out, we’re kidding ourselves. The elite teams find a way to give their best shot week in and week out.”

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