By Steve Habel/Senior Editor
Texas football head coach Charlie Strong checked in his players Thursday morning in advance of his team’s first fall workouts. Then he met with the assembled media to discuss how this year’s squad — the second under his tutelage on the Forty Acres — will be different than the first one that produced a 6-7 record in 2014.
There’s no doubt that the Longhorns, picked to finish fifth in the 10-team Big 12 Conference [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]in voting by the league’s coaches and media, have a bevy of questions to be answered before they take the field Sept. 5 under the gaze of Touchdown Jesus at Notre Dame. (Continue reading below…)[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]
(…Continued from above) “I’m real excited for things to get started,” Strong said. “Last season’s results will never be acceptable for this program, but as we enter year two as a coaching staff, we know who these guys are and who we can trust. We are all just pushing through what we went through last year.”
Strong said he is trying to identify leaders on a team that is basically void of marquee players and anyone with a history in the role of taking the bull by the horns (pun intended).
“We are looking for someone to step out and not be afraid to separate themselves from the group,” Strong said. “If you step out, someone with follow you and someone will follow that second person. We spent a lot of time this offseason working with some players to challenge them to be the ones to step out.”
The leadership issue is front and center in Strong’s agenda, but the Longhorns also must decide who will be under center and running their new spread-style offensive attack and who will be the playmakers for a squad in dire need of such.
Strong has said incumbent Tyrone Swoopes will start fall drills as the No. 1 quarterback, but said Thursday that both Swoopes and redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard will see playing time against the Fighting Irish.
“We need them both to play for the game experience, but I will not play musical chairs with them,” Strong said. “I expect for one of those two to emerge as the No. 1 quarterback during fall workouts. Both guys have been working well.”
Strong and his staff will move into the dorms with his players for the first three weeks of camp as the team works as a group toward the goal of improving from the disappointment of 2014.
“Following a legendary coach like (former Texas) Coach (Mack) Brown into this job last year, the staff thought it would be like pushing a button to (get) the players ready and into learning the things we were teaching them,” Strong said. “It didn’t work out that way.
“This year, we are just looking for effort and for the guys to constantly go hard. We have to build and improve and that starts with fundamentals. At times last year, we broke down, and that was because of a lack of fundamentals.”
The ‘Horns will have their first practice Friday and host their annual Football Fan Day Sunday, Aug. 9 at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. The workout, which runs from 9:45 a.m. until noon, will allow fans to preview of the Longhorns before the season opener and offers a glimpse at the new Texas pregame atmosphere.
A post-practice autographs and photos session will run from 1:30-3:30 p.m.
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