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Texas Longhorns: Can freshmen lead turnaround under Charlie Strong?

By Michael Taglienti

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Charlie Strong’s second season in Austin will rely on several freshmen playing big roles for the Texas Longhorns, but will that be enough to get to a bowl?

The Texas Football team struggled to a 6-7 record in 2014. Despite the best efforts of their coaches and players, the Longhorns will suffer their second straight losing season in 2015.

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There is an old adage in college football that you will lose one game for every freshman you start. Texas head coach Charlie Strong and his Longhorn players are going to attempt to prove that theory wrong during the 2015 season.

Texas lost seven games during Strong’s first year at the helm in 2014. Five of those losses were by 20 or more points. The 2014 version of the Longhorns featured a solid defense and an anemic offense.

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The games that Texas lost in 2014 followed a similar script. The Longhorn defense kept the game close in the first half, only to tire and watch the game slip away in the second half because the Texas offense could not make first downs and stay on the field.

The best players from that defense have moved onto the NFL. Malcom Brown, Jordan Hicks and Quandre Diggs are all trying to make NFL rosters right now. Brown  earned All-American honors at defensive tackle and was a first-round pick by the New England Patriots.

Strong is going to attempt to replace those departed players and jump-star the Texas offense by playing an extensive number of freshman.

Strong stated that it is unacceptable for Texas to lose five games in a season. He is going try to build a foundation for a winning program by getting his 2015 recruiting class as much early playing time as possible. There are some advantages to playing true freshmen in college football. Youth tends to bring exuberance and energy to a program. Unfortunately, inexperience often results in a lot of mistakes.

Mistakes like turnovers and blown coverages can cause football teams to lose games. Strong and the Longhorns will have to try to find a happy medium between getting their young players experience to build for the future, and trying to win now.

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When you say five losses are unacceptable at Texas, you are painting yourself in a corner on a team that will likely be one of the youngest in the nation in 2015. Generally speaking, freshmen tend to struggle to make the adjustment from high school to college the closer to the football you get.

Good teams can cope with having true freshmen play and even start at the skill positions. At positions like running back and wide receiver, natural ability can overcome a lack of experience and lead to uncommon results on the field. When you get closer to the football in the trenches, in the front seven on defense and at quarterback, it is never advisable to start true freshmen. Strong may be forced to do that simply to get more talent on the field.

The jewel of Strong’s 2015 recruiting class was five-star linebacker Malik Jefferson. The blue-chip recruit from Mesquite, TX. Made a name for himself as one of the best pass-rushers in the state.

Jefferson came off the edge from his outside linebacker spot and registered 24 sacks during his junior and senior seasons of high school. Strong has moved Jefferson to middle linebacker to replace departed senior Steve Edmond. He will team with redshirt freshman Edwin Freeman and senior Peter Jenkins to give the Longhorns their fastest linebacker corps in recent memory.

That speed can mean that the linebackers will make a lot of big plays, but the inexperience at the position means that they will sometimes run themselves out of a play very quickly.

A couple of freshmen are expected to make an immediate impact on the Longhorns’ offensive line. That offensive line was among the worst in the nation in 2014. The Longhorns averaged 3.8 yards per rush in 2014. The offensive line allowed 28 sacks on the season gave up 7.2 tackles per loss per game.

True freshman offensive tackle Connor Williams enrolled at Texas in January and participated in spring practice. He is expected to start at either right or left tackle when the Longhorns open the season in South Bend against Notre Dame.

Fellow true freshman Patrick Vahe may join Williams in the starting lineup at guard against Notre Dame. Starting true freshmen on the offensive line is never advisable and rarely successful. Most freshmen are simply not physically mature enough to compete with defensive linemen who have already spent three or four years in a college weight program.

Texas cannot afford to have a repeat of 2014 when it comes to offensive line play. The Longhorns only gained 59 total yards of offense against Arkansas in the 2014 Texas Bowl. Those kinds of performances scare away recruits.

Strong is gambling that the benefits will outweigh the costs when it comes to starting true freshmen on the offensive line and at linebacker. Experience is a premium at those two positions but experienced talent is not a luxury that Texas has.

Besides Jefferson, Vahe and Williams, Texas fans should expect to see true freshmen Khris Boyd, Chris Warren, DeAndre McNeal, John Burt, Holton Hill and DeShon Elliot see the field in 2015.

Strong is playing true freshman out of necessity. He is doing it to put more talent on the field, and to give the fans hope that a bright future is ahead. Longhorn fans may see benefits from Strong’s youth movement in the future, but it will not be 2015 when Texas will struggle to match the six wins they had in 2014.

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