Sam Ehlinger is no stranger to playing under the lights in Austin.

He grew up there, played at a powerhouse local program and competed for state championships. But Ehlinger had never played at Darrell K Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium in quite the atmosphere he did Saturday evening.

That didn’t matter. Ehlinger looked his same cool, calm and collected self. And that's why Ehlinger is 247Sports’ True Freshman of the Week.

Ehlinger led Texas (3-2) to a 40-34 double-overtime win over Kansas State. He did so with 487 total yards in his third start, a performance for the Longhorns’ record book. Here is just a sampling of Ehlinger’s single-game total and where it fits in Texas lore:

Ehlinger became the third Longhorn QB to ever pass for 300 yards and run for 100 in a single game. That’s a feat Vince Young never accomplished.

never accomplished. His 380 yards passing were the most by a Texas true freshman ever.

Those 380 yards are also the 10th-most in school history in a single game.

All of that happened, by the way, with a patchwork offensive line that's down to just two Week 1 starters. Ehlinger was often battered and bruised in the win, but he kept pushing through everything from hits to an interception.

“Tough kid, not just physically but mentally,” Texas head coach Tom Herman said postgame. “He’s certainly got a lot of room for improvement, but he overcomes (mistakes) with tenacity and toughness.”

Ranked as the No. 119 overall player per the 247Sports Composite, Ehlinger was Texas’ first commit in the 2017 class. He didn’t waver when Texas made an offensive coordinator change the winter of his junior year, and he didn’t waiver when Texas made a head coaching change the next offseason.

It’s a good thing for the Longhorns he didn’t.

Herman wasn’t ready to name Ehlinger the starter for Texas’ game with Oklahoma this weekend, but the role seems inevitable even with Shane Buechele’s impending return from injury. Ehlinger is 2-1 overall as a starter with his only loss coming at USC in overtime.

The Longhorns are averaging 40 points in games in which Ehlinger starts.

They’re averaging 29 with Buechele leading the way.

Ehlinger wasn’t supposed to play this early. But the early enrollee has stepped up when needed, and he seems more than ready to keep playing.