Texas Ex Nate Boyer: Longhorns QB Sam Ehlinger is ‘2x the leader I am’

Despite being a true freshman, Texas Longhorns quarterback Sam Ehlinger has won over teammates and fans with a series of strong, tough performances. On Thursday, former Green Beret and Texas long snapper Nate Boyer became the latest convert:

Boyer later revealed that he was the one who set up the meeting with Ehlinger, as he had seen enough from Ehlinger on the field to take an interest in his leadership abilities.

And that’s no small praise coming from Boyer, whose remarkable journey has taken him from a life as an aid worker in Darfur to tours in Iraq and Afghanistan after becoming a Green Beret to a football career as a long snapper at Texas despite lacking any previous experience.

Recently, he’s been calling for unity in a nation divided by the national anthem protests in the NFL.

Widely known as being remarkably mature for his age, Ehlinger’s presence and poise quickly struck Texas head coach Tom Herman when the two first met.

“He's transitioned or translated that maturity into this really dynamic leadership quality he has,” Herman said in February. “He's an alpha male. He walks in the room, and it's like, ‘Whoa, Sam's here.’ I mean, he's a competitor. I just love that about quarterbacks.”

Now it seems everyone loves that about Ehlinger as Longhorns fans once again hope to have found the program’s quarterback of the future for the first time in close to a decade.