Freshman Buechele impresses early at QB
AUSTIN — Once the final few stragglers at Texas’ fan day left the grandstands at Royal-Memorial Stadium on Sunday morning, the Longhorns football program went dark. It will stay that way for the next month.
No more preseason practices are scheduled to be open to fans or to the media. No more video of UT’s five scholarship quarterbacks will be available to overanalyze. There’s no guarantee a Longhorns passer will be seen in public again until the night of Sept. 4, when one of them takes the field for the season opener against Notre Dame.
Until then, the competition for the job will continue behind closed gates, but that doesn’t mean the first two practices of the preseason didn’t tell us a lot about each of the candidates.
Shane Buechele: The freshman from Arlington Lamar was the second quarterback to work with the starters during Saturday’s and Sunday’s workouts, but that might have been a formality. In new coordinator Sterlin Gilbert’s up-tempo, spread offense, Buechele looked more comfortable than any of the older players, and he consistently made things happen.
What might have come as a surprise to some onlookers was that the 6-1, 191-pounder showed plenty of arm, too. It’s not the strongest of the group, but Buechele looked adept at making throws on out routes across the field, and threw several impressive deep balls. As long as he keeps it up, he’s the favorite to start against the Fighting Irish.
Tyrone Swoopes: The 6-4, 249-pound senior looks an awful lot like he has in each of the past three Augusts, and that’s not a terrible thing. No one in the quarterback room studies harder than Swoopes, and no one throws the ball harder.
The problem, of course, is those attributes haven’t led to much on-field success. The Longhorns know what they can expect from Swoopes, and it isn’t promising for a team looking to win eight or nine games. So even though he’ll continue to push Buechele, he’s likely to enter the season as an adequate backup, while continuing to see action on a few plays per game in the “18-wheeler” wildcat package.
Jerrod Heard: Less than 11 months ago, Heard dazzled the crowd at RoyalMemorial while setting a UT record for most yards of total offense in a single game. Sunday, on that same field, it was evident that the only way he’ll line up at quarterback for the Longhorns this fall is if something has gone wrong.
Although the sophomore’s athleticism remains tantalizing, he’s struggled to make the throws required of passers in Gilbert’s offense, and he’s clearly several steps behind Buechele and Swoopes. Although coach Charlie Strong said he’s in no rush to move any of his quarterbacks to another position, Heard did spend part of the offseason catching passes, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see him line up in the slot at some point this year.
Matthew Merrick and Kai Locksley: Neither is likely to play much, if at all, but the most interesting development regarding UT’s fourth and fifth quarterbacks was the order in which they were used this weekend. Locksley, considered a huge recruit when he signed with the Longhorns two years ago, received only a handful of repetitions; Merrick appeared to be the unquestioned fourth-stringer.
For the 6-4, 198-pound Locksley, it could be a sign he’ll be changing positions — or programs – soon.