Texas Football: Charlie Strong Drops Possible Hints for Starting Quarterback
By Tyler Brett
Charlie Strong has been keeping his cards close to the chest when it comes to who will be the starting quarterback for Texas football on September 4. But did he tip his hand during a press conference August 29 about his plans at quarterback?
Throughout fall camp, the race for quarterback has been on everyone’s mind. QB has been a position of need now for Texas since Colt McCoy graduated in 2009. For the Longhorns to succeed, they needed more from under center, hence the interest in the quarterback competition between freshman Shane Buechele and senior Tyrone Swoopes.
Buechele has been the fan favorite ever since he lit it up in the Texas spring game after enrolling early. While he’s young and needs to add bulk, he has a good arm and has proven himself to be an excellent leader in the locker room. Conventional wisdom said this job was Buechele’s to lose.
And while the young QB has played well during camp, Strong has still not declared a starter. Buechele and Swoopes continue to split reps in practice and their coach isn’t going to announce a starter before the team takes the field September 4. Despite persistent questions and allegedly knowing he is going to pick, Strong refuses to let slip who will be leading this offense against the Irish.
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Unless he subconsciously did. During a press conference on Monday, Strong once again got peppered with questions about who his starting quarterback would be. He continued to say he wouldn’t announce any decision to maintain a competitive edge over Notre Dame and we would all have to wait to see who ran out of the tunnel on Sunday.
However, in follow-up questions, Strong revealed that whoever is the starter is going to be the starter and he is not going to flip-flop between guys if the starter struggles early. That is telling if we remember that Strong also said in earlier interviews that both Buechele and Swoopes would play against Notre Dame. When you put those two statements together, it gives us a possible answer for who will be the quarterback.
While Buechele is an athletic guy, the coaching staff has not been shy about saying he needs to add more bulk to endure the rigors of running at the major college level. That means the coaching staff is going to want to protect him by using him primarily as a passer. When he’s in the game, he’s going to be somewhat one-dimensional from the pocket.
Swoopes, meanwhile, is a tank who has had proven success running between the tackles. Last season, Texas developed the 18-wheeler package specifically for him to run. While he has proven to have some limitations as a quarterback, there’s no denying he provides another element to the offense with his running ability.
If Swoopes were going to be the starter, why would the team bring Buechele into the game? While he is arguably a better passer than Swoopes, Buechele doesn’t provide a new dimension to the offense. If anything, you’re bringing a young QB into a game cold off the bench against a top 10 team. That’s a recipe for disaster.
With Buechele as the starter, Swoopes has a role to play in the offense by coming in for those 18 wheeler sets in short yardage. Plus, he has the entire playbook to work with after working with the starting offense throughout camp. That keeps defenses honest and prevents them from loading up against the run.
If we take Strong at his word (which could entirely be a smokescreen for Notre Dame) and Texas is going to commit to one starter but both Buechele and Swoopes are going to play on Sunday, then we can logically say that Shane Buechele will lead the Longhorns through the tunnel against the Irish.
Does this theory hold water? Will Texas turn to a true freshman quarterback in this all-important 2016 season? And does he have what it takes to lead the Horns to upset against Notre Dame?
So many questions left to be answered and still six days until kickoff.