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Texas Longhorns quarterback Tyrone Swoopes had the chance to cement his place as the team’s starter after David Ash retired from the game. Unfortunately for the team, he failed to live up to expectations.
Swoopes finished the season with 2,409 passing yards, 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Swoopes did rush for four touchdowns during the season, but his overall play has been subpar all year, and a change at the position is imminent.
The Longhorns will enter the 2015 spring practices with a quarterback competition between Swoopes, redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard and current high school commit Zach Gentry.
Heard is the favorite to win this competition based on him winning two state championships in high school. However, the latest update on Heard’s progress came in November when quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson said he was “starting to get it.”
“Starting to get it” is not a great promotion of the player that is expected to win out the competition heading into spring practices.
The Longhorns were smart to keep Heard off the field throughout the season to allow him time to learn the offense. Now, he’ll have an entire offseason to fight for the starting position and will only face true competition from true freshman Gentry.
Swoopes is not the answer at the position, and coach Strong will be giving Heard and Gentry a stronger chance to win the job if he believes they have the ability to lead the team to more victories next season.
With such a strong recruiting class, the emphasis will be for Texas to win-now and aim to claim at least a bowl victory in Strong’s second season.
Texas’ defense should be the best in the Big 12 next season, and so the impetus will be on the offense to put up as many points as possible to allow the team’s defense to rest before doing the job that’s expected of them.
One option that Texas could look at to improve the effectiveness of their quarterback position is looking to target a graduate transfer from another college.
Ohio State Buckeyes’ Braxton Miller, Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s Golson Everett and Stanford Cardinal’s Kevin Hogan are the top three quarterbacks Texas could look to lure to the 40 acres to give them some senior leadership from a talented quarterback who would face virtually no competition for the job.
Miller has been a rumored target for Duke and Everett has been rumored to be moving to the LSU Tigers, leaving Hogan as the best option for Texas should they choose to take this option.
Strong may choose to stay loyal to his own quarterbacks, with Heard and Gentry leading the fight for Swoopes’ position heading into the 2015 season. Whatever happens, look for Texas to have better performances from their quarterback, and look for them to contend for a conference title in the 2015 season.
James Reeve is an NFL and NCAA Football writer for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter or “Like” him on Facebook.
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