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Ehlinger or Buechele? Texas coach Tom Herman has navigated QB injuries before

Texas coach Tom Herman has navigated quarterback injuries before.

During his final year as Ohio State's offensive coordinator in 2014, the Buckeyes went through three quarterbacks and won the first College Football Playoff championship. Yes, that team also had Ezekiel Elliott running the ball. At the same time, J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones got the job done better than anyone expected after Braxton Miller was hurt in preseason camp.

Now Herman has to sort out Sam Ehlinger and his strained throwing shoulder ahead of Saturday's game at Oklahoma State.

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"If he's healthy and he's himself, then certainly he'll start," Herman said Monday.

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If not, Texas will turn to backup Shane Buechele, as it did two weeks ago when Ehlinger was hurt on the first series in a 23-17 win over Baylor. A decision could come following practice Thursday, Herman said.

Ehlinger threw a Nerf football 10 times and a real football 15 times on Sunday, under the supervision of an athletic trainer. He was scheduled to throw a real football 25-30 times during Monday's practice, building up as the week goes along.

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While Herman and his staff have all kinds of medical information and special injury protocols and sports science - like the velocity of Ehlinger's passes - there's more to the equation.

"For us it's going to also be just the naked eye," Herman said. "What does his motion look like, does it look like he's babying throws, does it look like he's altering the way that he's used to throwing? But we will have the different kind of things that give us some raw data on where he's at.

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"I think ultimately it's going to be does it hurt him too much to be effective and is in order to not get it to hurt is he changing the way that he throws to the detriment of the offense."

One key factor: feedback from the hyper-competitive Ehlinger, Herman acknowledged.

He'll undoubtedly want to play. But the quarterback run is a key part of the Texas offense with Ehlinger, who carried the ball 19 times for 72 yards and three touchdowns in the win over Oklahoma and is willing to take hits.

"We talked awhile [Sunday] 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, "and 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."

From Stillwater, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy believes Ehlinger will start.

"I would think he would be back," Gundy said, acknowledging that Oklahoma State will probably prefer for both Ehlinger and Buechele. "Try to take a little both of both. That's quite a bit of carryover with the two."

Buechele remains a viable option with 19 career starts. Herman said he's seen no trepidation or reservation about Buechele from players during the off week.

"Based off what Shane Buechele has done in his career here," Herman said, "there's nobody that doubts that we can win games with him and win big games with him."

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For Herman and Texas, there's more at stake than one game. Texas (6-1, 4-0 Big 12) has won six consecutive games, its longest streak since 2013. The Longhorns moved up one spot to No. 6 in the AP Top 25 rankings and the first College Football Playoff rankings will be unveiled on Oct. 30.

A win and the Longhorns could be pretty well positioned going into the final four games of the regular season.

While Oklahoma State (4-3, 1-3) has struggled early this season, Boone Pickens Stadium will be packed for a Homecoming night game. The Cowboys have won six of the last eight meetings with Texas and are breaking out Barry Sanders era throwback uniforms from 1988.

Asked about the big-picture implications, Herman said the rankings don't enter the discussion.

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"Never. Zero. I mean literally zero," Herman said. "It is completely and utterly inconsequential where we're ranked through seven games of the season. The only thing that matters is what hardware have we taken home and where are we ranked at the end of the season.

"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."

Breaking down Texas' record through seven games since 2009