30 days until Texas Football: Only twice has a Longhorn quarterback thrown for 30+ touchdowns in a season
Inside Texas is putting a new twist on long-time photographer Will Gallagher’s time-honored countdown to Texas football kickoff. In addition to Will’s great pictures, the Inside Texas staff will go through every player on the roster by jersey number and offer a season outlook on each, from five-star to walk-on.
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We’ll also look back at other greats to wear that day’s number, with special reverence to some of Texas’ best.
Today is 30 days until kickoff. No one is wearing No. 30 for the Longhorns this season so we will look at how many times a Texas quarterback has thrown 30 or more touchdown passes
Texas historically hasn’t been pass happy
The way Texas has run offense since the advent of the wishbone has resulted in relatively modest passing statistics across the history of the program. Darrell Royal brought the wishbone to prominence, and though Emory Ballard’s signature system didn’t last until the 21st century, a run-first principle across several decades has placed a hard ceiling on just how high the passing records can rise.
One area where that’s made evident is in the total number of seasons in which a UT quarterback recorded 30 or more passing touchdowns. In the storied history of Texas football, it’s only happened twice. Colt McCoy set a program record with his 34 touchdown tosses in 2008. Sam Ehlinger had 32 touchdown passes in 2019, the only other occasion where a Longhorn eclipsed 30.
Part of that has to do with offensive philosophy, and that’s not limited to the days of the wishbone. Fred Akers, David McWilliams, John Mackovic, and even Mack Brown ran systems in line with the prevalent offensive thinking of the time. Quarterback battles throughout the years, notably the seemingly game-to-game trade-offs of the early Brown era, cut into the opportunity for anyone to reach 30.
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Texas offense became a resident of modernity in the mid-2000s, resulting in one of the only 30 touchdown seasons with McCoy. While flawed in his overall program management, Tom Herman brought some semblance of modern offense to the Forty Acres and Ehlinger reaped the benefits of it.
Is 30-plus possible for Quinn Ewers in 2023? Seven Inside Texas staff members think he’ll be north of 25, with some believing he can hit 30 in a Steve Sarkisian offense with one of the best receiving corps in the country (and without the benefit of Bijan Robinson or Roschon Johnson).
Should Ewers reach that threshold, he’ll be among select company in Texas football history.
Recent player to wear No. 30: Devin Richardson
Richardson appeared in 20 games in his two seasons at Texas after transferring from New Mexico State. He recorded 15 tackles, eight of them solo and one tackle for a loss in his career on the 40 Acres.
Richardson was named to the 2021-22 Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team and was a member of the Academic All-Big 12 First Team in 2022. He was a three-time member of the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll (fall 2021, spring 2022, fall 2022).
All-Americans to wear No. 30
Bryant Westbrook, CB, 1996
Steve Worster, FB, 1969 and 1970
Steve Habel co-authored this article
