Over the first three weeks of the college football season, one of the most intriguing storylines in the Big 12 was the shuffling of starting quarterbacks by the Texas Longhorns. Well on Tuesday, we learned that the competition has gone from a 3-horse race to just two.

The school has announced that junior QB Garrett Gilbert underwent shoulder surgery Tuesday morning and will miss the remainder of the 2011 season. In the released statement, team trainer Kenny Boyd said:

The injury appeared to occur during the [season-opening] Rice game. He had symptoms, but was not affected in practice leading up to BYU. After that, it got progressively worse.

We did an MRI on the shoulder last week, and after our medical staff looked at the results, we recommended that he have surgery. He spent some time talking with his family and they agreed that was the route they wanted to go.

Gilbert started all 12 games last year and the first two of 2011, before being benched midway through a 17-16 win against BYU on September 10. Before last week's 49-20 win over UCLA, Gilbert was moved from starter to third team, behind sophomore Case McCoy and freshman David Ash.

For more on this story, check out David Ubben's piece on ESPN.com.

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