Charlie Strong wasted little time beginning his reclamation project of the Texas Longhorns in Year 1, making numerous dismissals for players who failed to step in line with his new philosophies.
Now, Strong has to turn his attention towards bringing in elite talent that will buy in and take the Horns back to the top of the Big 12. Early on, Texas looked to be building one of the best recruiting classes in the 2015 cycle but it lacked one important element that was key to completing the turnaround at Texas: a quarterback.
But on Monday, the Longhorns fixed that issue by flipping four-star quarterback recruit Kai Locksley from the Florida State Seminoles. The 6-foot-3, 188-pound playmaker is rated as the No. 336 player nationally, No. 23 athlete, and the No. 6 player in the state of Maryland. He weighed offers from schools all across the nation and put his dynamic playmaking ability on display at the 2015 Under Armour All-America game (where he played wide receiver). Most importantly, he gives Texas a blue-chip QB prospect to build around for the future.
Leading up to National Signing Day, there was some worry surrounding the Longhorn program about finding a quarterback in this class. Originally, the team had secured a verbal commitment from four-star recruit Zach Gentry out of Albuquerque. The 6-foot-7, 240-pound prospect was the eighth-ranked pro-style quarterback in this class and came with a bit of athleticism as well, clocking a 4.6 40-yard dash time. Texas went after him hard in recruiting as the first major program to offer him a scholarship and he would have certainly had the opportunity to start from Day 1. If he had stayed in the fold, quarterback would not have been a concern this close to signing day.
Gentry did not stick with Texas, however, flipping his commitment to John Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines late in the process. A combination of a full-press Michigan recruiting pitch and schematic changes in a struggling 2014 Texas offense opened the door for Gentry to reconsider his commitment and it left the Horns in a bit of a bind for their 2015 recruiting class.
After having one of the staples of their class flipped from them, Texas set out to flip someone else from another program. Their first target was Kyler Murray, a verbal commit with the Texas A&M Aggies. Murray was a five-star, in-state phenom and is ranked as the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in the 2015 class who would have instantly made quarterback a strength for the Horns. The talented QB made headlines by making an official visit to Austin and tweeting out a picture of a Texas jersey but he ultimately stayed firm in his commitment to A&M.
Texas responded by turning their attention to Locksley, one of three four-star quarterback commits with plans to play in Tallahassee. Locksley came to Austin for an official visit on the second-to-last weekend of the cycle where early enrollee linebacker Malik Jefferson acted as his host. He had such a positive experience that he didn’t even wait until Signing Day to announce his decision on Twitter.
Now he faces the challenge of rising to the task of solving the long-standing issue of quarterback at Texas. Since Colt McCoy was knocked out of the BCS National Championship Game against the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Horns have been searching for their next great leader under center. The program had high hopes for David Ash, of course, but concussions ended his career and kept him from fulfilling his true potential in Austin.
What Texas was left with was inconsistent play from their offensive leadership position that sank any real momentum they built towards a Big 12 title. Strong put his stamp on the Texas defense immediately in 2014, turning them into the No. 2 total defense and No. 3 scoring defense in the Big 12. But a passing offense that ranked dead last in the conference hampered the Horns and led them to have the No. 9 total offense and scoring offense in the Big 12.
At the heart of their issues was the inconsistent play from Tyrone Swoopes. The 6-foot-4, 243-pound sophomore just drips with potential but he seemed to struggle to channel that potential into his play at quarterback in 2014. He completed just 58.3 percent of his passes on the season as he tallied 2,409 yards through the air with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. His athleticism helped him make some plays as he accounted for 262 yards and four touchdowns on the ground, but it didn’t make up for lack of success through the air.
The hope with Locksley is that he can come in and develop into the type of quarterback and leader that can take this team over the top, much like Strong had with the Louisville Cardinals and Teddy Bridgewater. Locksley will be a developmental project, of course, as his slight 188-pound frame could stand to add some bulk, and his high school career was spent largely in a spread, read-option heavy offense that asked him to run more than throw. He is a smooth athlete, to be sure, but his ultimate success will be determined by how well he focuses his athleticism into becoming a better quarterback with the ability to make throws.
On the surface, Locksley looks like the same kind of prospect that Swoopes or Jerrod Heard were, with incredible athleticism but unproven quarterbacking ability. The hope is that he will be able to tap into his full potential, becoming not only an incredible athlete but also an elite quarterback. That might mean that he sits for a year as a redshirt to develop his body and mind to truly be ready to take on the responsibility of playing quarterback for Texas.
If Strong wants to take Texas to the top of the college football world again, he needs to get better play out of his quarterback. As it stands, it doesn’t appear that the quarterbacks already on the roster were the answer they needed. Adding Locksley gives Texas that missing piece to the puzzle to turn the Longhorns into one of the nation’s elite programs once again.
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