The Men Who Really Control the Future of Texas Football

Howard McMahan doesn't play football—not anymore, anyway—but Texas head coach Charlie Strong recruited him all the same. In fact, you could say McMahan has taken some unofficial visits to the Longhorn program.

McMahan has been the coach of McNeil High School in north Austin for just under a year, but has coached in the Texas high school ranks at Pflugerville Connally and Copperas Cove. It's guys like McMahan who are just as important to Strong's success as wooing the next 5-star recruit. 

That's why Strong and the Longhorns coaching staff open their doors to area high school coaches, allowing them to view practices and see the program in a way most others can't.

Texas is still selling itself, after all, just not exclusively to prospective players. 

"It's an open-door policy. I've been over there to watch practices," McMahan said in an interview with Bleacher Report. "Being a major university, it sends a good message. It gives us an opportunity to really see the program. It develops relationships and good PR." 

Texas isn't the only school to peel back the curtains for high school coaches, but the Longhorns are definitely in need of some good PR. 

The harsh reality is that Texas has been losing the in-state recruiting battle. The Longhorns haven't finished ahead of Texas A&M in recruiting class rankings since 2012, according to 247Sports.com. In 2014, Texas landed eight of the state's top 50 players. That number was nine in 2013 and 18 in 2012. 

School	2014	2013	2012
Texas A&M	10	13	8
Texas	8	9	18
Baylor	6	3	4
LSU	4	0	1
Oklahoma State	3	3	1
TCU	3	1	3
Stanford	2	0	0
Texas Tech	2	1	4
Notre Dame	2	2	0
Oklahoma	1	4	2
Other	9	14	9

With less than a month until national signing day 2015, the 'Horns have seven of the state's top recruits and and have the 10th-best class in the country; A&M has 12 and ranks eighth. 

"I think Charlie has worked at improving those relationships and has made some strides," said Austin American-Statesman columnist Kirk Bohls, "But he probably still needs a super recruiter on his staff like David Beaty was at Texas A&M." 

Ultimately, high schools recruits will go where they think they'll be happiest. Their reasons are myriad and likely subject to change. Strong and his staff can't necessarily control that. What they can control, however, is their relationships with the recruiting gatekeepers: high school coaches. 

And Strong can't afford to alienate them. 

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Rebranding the Brand

Strong's calling card from Day 1 has been his five core values: Honesty, treating women with respect, no drugs, no stealing and no guns. Everything he was going to build stemmed from that. 

Strong's core values can come across as obvious and a tad corny, but there are others who find them meaningful: high school coaches. They believe they're in the business of developing boys into men. In their view, Strong takes the baton from them. 

"He had a mission going into this and he's stuck with his guns," said Abilene Cooper High School coach Todd Moebes. "He's made a lot of tough decisions that could have been made differently, but he did what he felt was right and true. He believes in what he's doing."

"Strong is trying to reshape Texas," added Cedar Hill High School head coach Joe McGuire. 

Whereas other coaches like Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M and Art Briles at Baylor have long, pre-existing relationships with Texas high school coaches, Strong and his staff do not.

Interestingly, Strong recently released two assistants with Texas ties: wide receivers coach Les Koenning and tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator Bruce Chambers. Chambers specifically had longtime ties to the Dallas-Fort Worth recruiting hotbed. However, those ties were perhaps antiquated. Coupled with poor on-field results, they weren't enough to keep Chambers around. 

All the same, it was a bold move. McGuire noted that Chambers "was our guy." Texas is currently recruiting one of McGuire's players, 4-star receiver Damarkus Lodge. McGuire added that 'Horns linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary has been in contact since Chambers' firing. 

Without a longstanding history in Texas, Strong and his staff have taken another angle: transparency. High school coaches have to A) know what they're getting with Strong, and B) know that he's going to take care of their players once they're on campus.

Violators of Strong's core values have been suspended and dismissed. Last September, offensive lineman Kennedy Estelle was the ninth player kicked off the team. It's not something Strong enjoys doing, as he noted in a story last year from Max Olson of ESPN.com:

"

Anytime a player is dismissed from this program, it hurts me. We're here to help young men. We're not here to run young men off. That is not our job. We're here to help them. It just bothers you, because when you've been given opportunities, you want to make sure you have every resource available for them to be successful.

"

Building for the Future Now

While discipline has been a key factor in garnering the respect of the state's high school coaches, there's going to be one thing that defines Strong's time at Texas: wins. And high school coaches are willing to help him get those wins. 

"It's important if Texas is relevant," said McGuire. "College football is better." 

The Longhorns won six games in 2014. Other than a three-game winning streak in November, it was rarely pretty. The lows were abysmal, too. Texas lost its final two games to TCU and Arkansas by a combined score of 79-17.

It's easy to see that Texas as a program is not the football factory it used to be. In 2014, no Texas players were taken in the NFL draft for the first time since 1937, according to Jake Trotter of ESPN.com. From 2006-08, the 'Horns had an average of six players drafted each year, per NFL draft archives. From 2012-14, Texas had six players drafted in total. 

Losing out on key recruits and failing to develop the ones that did come to Texas stamped the final years of the Mack Brown era. That can't happen under Strong if he's going to succeed. 

"I love Mack, I played for him," said Chris Simms, former Longhorns quarterback and current analyst for B/R. "But when Mack arrived in 1998, he had Ricky Williams, Shaun Rogers and Casey Hampton. He inherited a much better program than Charlie has." 

There's no shortage of quality players available and Strong needs them right away. What he has to sell to recruits and coaches is that they can be a part of the resurrection of Texas football. As of now, hope is the only currency that can be cashed. 

The pitch is starting to work. In the span of roughly three weeks—from Dec. 15 to Jan. 4 in a time known as the "Dead Period" of recruiting—Texas landed eight verbal commitments. Among them were Malik Jefferson, the No. 1 player in the state of Texas, and five other 4-star prospects from both Texas and Florida.

"If you have the relationships to get the best players, you do it," said McMahan. "Anyone who recruits nationally would say that." 

And recruiting is an ongoing effort. That's especially true for Strong, who is digging the program out of a hole left from the final years of the Mack Brown era. According to Bohls, Strong "has to get out more among the high school coaches and be a more visible presence.

"The presence of the SEC in Texas won’t go away and won’t diminish. If anything, it will grow stronger," Bohls continued. "It’s just a fact of life that other programs will try to court Texas high school kids, and that will grow with the addition of regular games at Jerry World and at NRG Stadium in Houston."

New blood was needed at Texas, though. Deep and longstanding relationships between college and high school coaches can be great, but they can also become stale. 

Early indications are that high school coaches are impressed with Strong's vision. "I've had nothing but positive interactions with coach Strong," said McGuire. If there are any skeptics about Strong from the high school ranks, they're not going on the record about it. 

There's work to be done. That much is true. But the fraternity that Strong must befriend is at least willing to open their door—just as Strong opened Texas' doors for them. 

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All quotes obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise. All recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.com.