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Texas should bench Tyrone Swoopes for Jerrod Heard to avoid hitting rock bottom

By Michael Taglienti

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The college football season is only one week old and already the Texas Longhorns are on the edge of a precipice. Texas needs to start redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard at quarterback to prevent a historically bad season.

One bad season will not sink a program, but the Longhorns are in a bad position. If they have their second losing season in a row, it would reshapethe perception of the program and have a deleterious effect on the football team for years to come.

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Texas is struggling to move the ball and score points on offense. A porous offensive line, questionable skill position talent and unimaginative play calling have all contributed to their offensive woes.

The Longhorns have been out scored 117-20 during their last three games dating back to 2014. Their opponents’ defenses in those contests have actually put scored the Texas offense 21-20. Over their last three games, the Texas offense actually has a net output of negative one point.

Texas head coach Charlie Strong took the first step in righting the offensive ship, when he demoted offensive coordinator Shawn Watson to quarterbacks coach. He tasked wide receiver coach Jay Norvell with taking over the play calling duties.

Watson designed predictable game plans that failed to take advantage of the talent available on the roster. His stubborn insistence on running the West Coast offense with Tyrone Swoopes at quarterback cost him his job.

If Norvell wants to avoid the same fate, he needs to start Heard and switch to a spread offense designed around the zone-read running game. Swoopes completed seven of 23 passes for 93 yards in the Horns’ 38-3 season-opening loss to Notre Dame. That was an improvement over his last game in 2014 when he only had 57 yards passing and an interception in a 31-7 loss to Arkansas.

Texas Longhorns
Texas Longhorns /

Texas Longhorns

When you look at Swoopes resume, he does not come across as a winner. He has a 5-8 record as a starter in college. Swoopes led Whitewright (TX) High School to a 1-9 record during his senior year in 2013.

In eight of those games, his team scored a touchdown or less. Swoopes’ graduating class in high school had 42 students in it. Texas high schools compete in divisions that are determined by attendance. Swoopes played single-A ball against the smallest schools in the state that still played 11-man football.

A legitimate FBS athlete should be able to dominate against the small-school squads that Swoopes was facing on a weekly basis. His failure to do so indicates that he has never been an elite football player.

Heard was an absolute star in high school. He played 4A ball and led Denton (TX) Guyer High School to consecutive state championships during his junior and senior seasons.

His ability to scramble and create plays off-schedule led to Heard being labeled as a four-star recruit. Heard was a championship level quarterback against schools that were five to ten times larger than the ones Swoopes had competed against. It stands to reason that he  possesses some intangibles that Swoopes lacks.

The Texas offensive line has been ineffective since Strong took over as head coach. The Horns rushed for 3.8 yards per carry in 2014 and the offensive line allowed 28 sacks. Texas rushed for 2.1 yards per carry and allowed four sacks during their loss to Notre Dame.

One of the basic tenets of coaching is to cater the team to the talents available. When you have a poor offensive line, it behooves you to play a mobile quarterback. Watson was supposed to install the hurry-up spread offense during the offseason. Instead he had the Horns running his West Coast offense without huddling.

There are no guarantees that Heard will be a more effective passer than Swoopes. However, Heard is definitely more mobile than Swoopes. Norvell was on Oklahoma’s staff in 2014 when injuries at the quarterback position caused to Sooners to switch to a zone-read based offense to take advantage of the mobility of quarterback Cody Thomas.

He should be able to implement a similar offense in Austin. The spread offense should result in more running lanes for Heard to scramble through. It should also take some of the pressure off the offensive line.

Watson’s offense was not working in Austin. You cannot win games in the Big 12 conference unless you can score points in bunches. Heard gives the Texas offense their best chance at being successful.

Texas is struggling to sell tickets to their games. If the offense continues to falter, fans are going to stay home. No one wants to watch their team get routed.

Heard gives the Longhorns hope. He will bring some excitement to the field. If the Texas offense does not turn around in a hurry, the losses are going to punt and the recruits are going to stay away. Recruiting is the lifeblood of a program. If Strong cannot recruit talent to Austin, the program will fall further and further behind Texas A&M, Baylor and TCU.

It is time for Strong to bench Swoopes and start Heard at quarterback. He is the Longhorns’ only hope at salvaging the season.

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