The Texas Longhorns went 8-5 last season, and even crazier is the fact that they went 7-2 in the difficult Big 12 Conference. But the writing was on the wall, as Mack Brown had been on the hot seat for several months. Instead of what many presumed would have been Mack Brown getting fired, he decided to resign before that could have occurred. After reportedly getting turned down by several prominent head coaches in both NCAA and NFL football, the Texas Longhorns finally found their man, bringing in Louisville's head coach in Charlie Strong. Before we get to Strong's actions with the program, let us take one final look at Mack's season before his resignation took place.
It is so difficult to remember that Brown had the school at 7-2 and 6-0 in the conference at one point. Those early losses and the way they ended the season probably had a significant impact on why Mack decided to retire. Strong has had a heavy hand before the season has even begun, releasing several players from the program including well known running back Joe Bergeron, before eventually bringing back safety Josh Turner, and no, he is not the country music singer with hits like "Long Black Train" and "Your Man." They also experienced a fairly early practice injury when Jaxon Shipley, the team's leading returning receiver and younger brother of former Texas star Jordan Shipley, with a hamstring strain. Hamstring injuries are known to linger around and can effect a player even after they have returned to the field. Hopefully, that is not the case for young Mr. Shipley. Besides the controversy and injuries though, let us go through other returning players likely to have an impact.
Offense
The player most likely to start the season at quarterback is redshirt junior David Ash. He has had several injury struggles in his time with the Longhorns. He only played in 3 games last year before he was hurt and earned the medical redshirt. Ash had 152 rushing yards and 1 touchdown to go with a 61% completion rate for 760 yards, 7 touchdowns, and only 2 interceptions in those three games. Case McCoy filled in and played the remainder of the season, but has now since graduated and will not be able to come in to help the Longhorns this season. The only other quarterback to see the field last year was Tyrone Swoopes. Swoopes may be the man to take over if Ash has another injury problem. Swoopes is more of a runner than a passer, with 20 rushing attempts for 79 yards and a touchdown. As far as passing is concerned, Swoopes had 13 pass attempts and completed only 5 with no touchdowns or interceptions. It will clearly be best for the Longhorns is Ash is healthy.
The running game of the Longhorns had absolutely no issues last year. They are led by senior tailback Malcolm Brown and junior running back Johnathan Gray. Brown had most of the reins of the rushing game because Gray suffered a season ending injury against the West Virginia Mountaineers. Brown finished with 904 yards and 9 touchdowns while Gray had 780 yards and 4 touchdowns. Brown also had the majority of the action catching out of the backfield too. He took his 17 catches for 195 yards and 2 touchdowns. Gray had 15 catches for 61 yards with no touchdowns. Those two will be back together for one final season, which is quite exciting for Longhorns fans. Hopefully they will both stay healthy this year and be a two-headed monster for opposing defenses.
The receiving corps is quite unknown for the Longhorns heading into 2014. Shipley has the hurt hamstring problem. Mike Davis, who had 8 touchdowns last year, has now graduated. Two receivers, Kendall Sanders and Montreal Meander, have been arrested for felony charges of sexual assault and have been suspended indefinitely from the team. The two leading receivers that are not hurt and back on the team are Daje Johnson and Marcus Johnson, no relation that yours truly here could find. Marcus had 22 catches for 350 yards and 2 touchdowns, one of the best averages on the team. Daje is more of a Dexter McCluster or Darren Sproles type player, with 24 catches for 178 yards and 1 touchdown. This is a position that is clearly hurting for the Longhorns as far as experience is concerned, but the Longhorns should have a lot of depth typically because of the strong recruiting classes that Texas has on a consistent basis. It will just be up to the younger players to rise to the occasion.
Defense
The big stud defensive lineman from the previous year was Jackson Jeffcoat. He had 86 tackles, 13 sacks, 22 tackles for loss, and 19 quarterback pressures, all of which were team highs for the 2013 Texas Longhorns. Jeffcoat will simply be missed, as he is now a member of the Seattle Seahawks. The next man that was great on the defensive line was senior Cedric Reed. As the opposite end defensive end, Reed was great. He had 79 tackles, 19 of which were for loss, and 10 total sacks. Reed also had 5 forced fumbles. His best game last year was against BYU when he recorded 14 tackles. The two big men returning on the inside are defensive tackles junior Malcom Brown, not to be confused with the running back Malcolm Brown, and senior Desmond Jackson. Brown was the more productive player last year with 68 tackles, 12 for loss, and 2 sacks. Jackson was effective as well with 39 tackles, 5 for loss, and 2 sacks. It will all depend on how well they can rise to the occasion with Jeffcoat being in the northwest.
The linebackers of the Longhorns were strong last year as well, and the top two returning to the team are junior Dalton Santos and senior Steve Edmond. Santos had 74 tackles and 10 of those were for loss. He also provided 3 quarterback hurries. He is 6' 3" and 252 pounds, which is pretty big for a linebacker. He is just one of the big linebackers that the Longhorns have, which makes them very difficult to run against. Edmond is also quite a bit bigger at 6' 2" and 258 pounds. He is on the preseason look list for the Butkus award, which goes to the nation's top linebacker. He had 73 tackles and 2 interceptions. A player to look is one returning from injury in Jordan Hicks. Hicks had 41 tackles despite getting injured in the fourth game of the season. He should be back and will be on the rise again for the Longhorns in 2014.
The top returning player in the secondary is senior safety Mykkele Thompson. He had 72 tackles and 1 interception last season. Thompson has been great as the last line of defense for the Longhorns and looks to do that again this past season. He is joined in the secondary by two experienced cornerbacks in senior Quandre Diggs and junior Duke Thomas. Diggs did not have any interceptions, but led the team with 10 pass breakups. Texas was not afraid to send him on a blitz either, since he had 2.5 sacks and 3 quarterback hurries. Diggs had 8 tackles in the game against the Sooners, which was one of the biggest upset wins for the Longhorns all season long. Thomas though, led the Longhorns in interceptions with 3. He also added 50 tackles and 5 pass breakups. These two men are the key to the defense as the Longhorns are bigger and stronger up front than most of their opponents will be.
Special Teams
Anthony Fera will be missed. He was great for the Longhorns after he came to the team from Penn State. He handled both the kicking and punting duties for the Longhorns in 2013, and it will be very intriguing to see who will fill those duties for the Longhorns this season. Junior Nick Rose is the man who will be the handling the kickoff duties for the Longhorns. He kicked it off 75 times last year and the only other player to kick the ball off at all is senior Michael Davidson, who did it once. Sophomore kicker Nick Jordan is the front runner for kicking duties though, he kicked field goals during his entire 2012 season but only went 7-10. It will be interesting to see if anyone replaces him if he starts off poorly in 2014.
The punting job, however, is an open competition between last year's reserve punter, senior William Russ, and the redshirt freshman from League City, Mitchell Becker. Russ should be considered a front runner, but it is a brand new coaching staff. Both players are likely to see the field early on until they settle on one.
2014 Season Outlook
The Longhorns were definitely disappointing in 2013, but they return a large amount of talent in the backfield for rushing and all across the defense. The big question marks are whether or not David Ash can stay healthy and who on earth would he be throwing the ball to? The Longhorns schedule is pretty loaded as well, and here is a full look at it now:
They will have to get things together early to avenge last year's non-conference losses to both BYU and UCLA. The game against UCLA is on the big stage as well, taking place at the "Jerry Dome" in Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys. They benefit from getting Baylor at home, but having Baylor and Oklahoma, the two conference favorites, back-to-back early in the conference schedule is definitely far from easy. Of course, the Oklahoma game will be circled as they play at the original site of the Cotton Bowl within the Texas State Fairgrounds because the Red River Rivalry is always a great game to look. Their toughest game down the stretch is likely their visit to Stillwater, Oklahoma to play the Oklahoma State Cowboys in Boone Pickens Stadium. The Longhorns look their weakest in the secondary and the Cowboys have been known to throw it deep early and often under the offenses during Mike Gundy's tenure as their head coach. Charlie Strong will have a tough welcome into the league, but it is likely that the Longhorns will probably run around 8-4 during this transition, which is likely to be a difficult one for the state of Texas to handle.