Sam Ehlinger named starter for tonight's Indianapolis Colts game

Sam Ehlinger has been named the starter for tonight’s Indianapolis Colts game. The former Texas Longhorns quarterback is currently embroiled in a battle with Jacob Eason for the possibility of starting Week 1 if veteran Carson Wentz can’t go.

If you haven’t heard, Colts owner Jim Irsay actually let the world know through his Twitter account today.

GAME DAY! Sam Ehlinger will start it off. 8pm ET kickoff, FOX59.

— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) August 21, 2021

“GAME DAY!” tweeted Irsay. “Sam Ehlinger will start it off.”

Perhaps there’s never been a more interesting way to learn about a starting quarterback than the team owner tweeting his name to the masses. However, Ehlinger earned it following his debut last week.

Sam Ehlinger’s game-winning drive

With the Colts trailing the Carolina Panthers 18-10 late in the fourth quarter, Ehlinger proved his mettle when the lights were brightest.

First, Ehlinger took it upon himself to lead the Colts on a drive that would knot the game up. The former Longhorns quarterback delivered a 47-yard completion to Tarik Black, his former teammate at Texas.

Afterwards, Ehlinger completed a 25-yard pass that brought the Colts to the one-yard line. Then, they completed the drive with a rushing touchdown and attempted the two-point conversion. To heighten the drama, Ehlinger himself ran it into the endzone, tying the game at 18-18.

After letting the Colts defense do their thing, the Panthers punted the ball. Now, Ehlinger had a chance to cap off his debut with a victory. After collecting a number of first downs, the drive had the potential to stall just outside of field goal range. 

Of course, Ehlinger wouldn’t let that happen. He scrambled on a passing play for 11 yards to keep the drive alive going into the final two minutes, his third rushing gain of the drive.

To follow, the Colts would kneel the ball to run the clock down, setting up the game-winning field goal by kicker Eddy Pineiro with seven seconds left in the game.

Victory. Game-winning drive? Engineered. And the legend of Sam Ehlinger begins.

Sam Ehlinger on his first start in the NFL

Fast forward, the former Longhorn now gets his first taste of starting in the NFL. When asked about it, Ehlinger mentioned that his mindset doesn’t change, and he thinks of the game as just another way to learn the team’s offense.

“I don’t think so,” Ehlinger told Yahoo Sports when asked if his mentality changes. “It’ll be good. First road game, but no different mentality. Just a new game plan. Go out and play and continue to get more and more comfortable in the system.”

If Ehlinger can continue to impress like he did in his NFL debut, it’ll be tough for the Indianapolis Colts to take him off the field. As a rookie sixth-round draft selection, the former Texas Longhorn’s career is off to a pretty good start, to say the least.

On3’s Austin Brezina contributed to this article.