Texas Football: Longhorns Need 2015 QB to Just Be Game Manager

DALLAS — Texas head coach Charlie Strong didn't want to talk about what his quarterbacks, Tyrone Swoopes and Jerrod Heard, needed to do in 2015. He wanted to talk about everyone else. 

When you consider what Strong is looking for in a quarterback in Year 2, his reasoning makes sense. 

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"A lot is made about the quarterback position, and it should be," Strong told Bleacher Report during Day 2 of Big 12 media days. "When it plays well, it gets a lot of praise.  When it plays bad, it gets a lot of criticism."

And, boy, oh boy, did Swoopes get a lot of criticism in 2014. 

Some of it was warranted. Swoopes was inconsistent, to say the least, throwing 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. For every good game, there were another two or three bad ones. In the Texas Bowl against Arkansas, Swoopes had just 57 yards passing.

But to put the Longhorns' offensive struggles on Swoopes alone would be unfair, especially considering he was thrust into the starting job perhaps before he was ready. Injuries and dismissals took an especially hard toll on the offensive line. Strong said as much in a March interview with Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports. 

"I don't care if you had Teddy Bridgewater standing back there last year, people wouldn't have thought he was very good either," Strong told Feldman. 

Senior running back Johnathan Gray agreed. 

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"Last year, the O-line was young. They didn't know what they were supposed to do," said Gray. "We just weren't clicking together. 

"Now they're jelling, helping me and Tyrone read the defenses."

So think of Gray's point this way: In 2015, it's not so much what Swoopes (or Heard) needs to do; it's what everyone else needs to do—what they can do.

"Every quarterback I've ever been around, there's been really good players around them," Strong said. "I could just go back to the University of Florida, and I think about Tim Tebow. You had Percy Harvin lined up, Aaron Hernandez lined up, you had Riley Cooper outside. You had (Chris) Rainey behind, you had two first‑rounders on the offensive line. 

"Everybody's got to do their part."

Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

Strong promised a move to a more wide-open offense this year. If that offense can get more production out of Gray, who is finally healthy and up to 215 pounds after an Achilles injury ended his 2013 season, a new-look wide receiver unit and the O-line, it will take a ton of pressure off the quarterback. Specifically, Strong praised Daje Johnson, a longtime program guy who has potential but hasn't quite lived up to it. Help from those types of players would be a huge step in the right direction. 

Perhaps, then, less will actually be more for the starting signal-caller. Swoopes or Heard, who are still in a quarterback battle, won't feel like they have to do everything. The "game manager" title can be viewed as an indictment, but in this instance, it would be a welcome change. 

"My goals for this year is help my teammates get better first," Gray said. "My responsibility is to be an option. I need to make sure I'm good in the run and the pass. I need to open up things for Tyrone so he doesn't have to think as much." 

Swoopes wasn't at media days, but if he was, he probably would have agreed that he was thinking too much last year and not letting the game come to him. Not that he had many options, of course. Texas' run game averaged fewer than four yards per attempt, meaning there was little respect for it. That allowed defenses to make the passing game a living hell for the sophomore. 

If Texas can improve in the trenches, there won't be any more excuses for the quarterback not to play well enough to move the chains. 

"It's all about them managing the offense, putting us in position where we can move the football, but not turning the ball over and having dumb plays or dumb mistakes," Strong said. 

Decision making is an emphasis for all positions, but especially at the quarterback spot. Gray said Heard has been making better decisions this offseason. Instead of taking off to run after going through his first read, Heard is going through his progressions more and pushing Swoopes. That's made both players better. 

The potential is there. The scheme has changed. The challenge has been accepted. Now, all that's left to do is to execute. And that's not just a check list for the quarterbacks. It's on everyone. 

"It's a great offense for us," Gray said. "The sky's the limit."

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All quotes obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise. All stats courtesy of cfbstats.com.