Texas Football Recruiting: 5 Positions Longhorns Can Get Away Without Filling

Recruiting can be a long, grueling process.

A head coach and his staff have to come together and work hard to make sure they get the right players to come to their school year in and year out.

Last week, I talked about some of the position players that the Texas Longhorns are currently missing from their class.

Those were the major things that I felt were lacking, but what are the position players that the Longhorns can get by without for a year or two?

Safety

Even with the departure of senior Blake Giddeon, someone who was always a force on the defensive end, the Longhorns are stacked with talent at the safety position.

There is the returning veteran leadership of senior Kenny Vaccaro, a first-team All-Big 12 selection who had 77 tackles, one sack, two interceptions and eight pass breakups while starting 10 games last season.

Then, there is an influx of youth and talent to go around behind Vaccaro, who should be able to pass on plenty of his knowledge to them.

Returning sophomores Mykkele Thompson (who had 14 tackles and one blocked punt while playing every game last season) and Sheroid Evans (who played both defense and special teams last year) bring some experience back to the 40 acres, while Nate Boyer and Devin Huffines will be competing for playing time.

All of this talent is precisely why the Longhorns don't need, and don't currently have, any safeties in their 2012 recruiting class.

Center

The Longhorns have a good center in 6'4", 298-lb Dominic Espinosa, who will only be a redshirt sophomore next season.

Espinosa has one year of solid learning under his belt after spending 2010 on the scout team, and he has another year of actual playing time after making an appearance in all 12 games last season.

The Longhorns also have Garrett Porter on the team, another 300-lb, redshirt junior who played in every game in each of the last two seasons.  He played on both offense and special teams, so he also brings plenty of experience and maturity to the table.

Porter can serve as a good backup for Espinosa if Espinosa gets hurt or just needs to catch his breath.

Centers generally don't leave too early for the NFL, so the Longhorns should be set at this position for at least another couple of seasons.

Running Back

There's no shortage of talent at this spot.

With sophomores Malcolm Brown and Joe Bergeron returning next season, the Longhorns are already stacked at this position.

This doesn't even include the likes of Jeremy Hills and D.J. Monroe, both of whom got the ball several times last season due to injuries to the starters.

Of course, incoming two-time National Gatorade Player of the Year Johnathan Gray could make a quick impact for the Longhorns, but without him they would still have plenty of talent to go around.

Even with the possibility of injuries occurring, one or more of these backs together are bound to make a huge difference on a Texas offense that had a lot of trouble putting up points last year.  They should easily combine for more than 1,000 yards rushing, and probably much more considering that Mack Brown has a run-happy offense.

The Longhorns lost big Cody Johnson, who was a great runner in short-yardage situations, but considering the ridiculous amount of talent they have at this position, the Longhorns should be fine at the running back spot for at least a few years.

Linebacker

Linebackers serve a crucial function in defensive coordinator Manny Diaz's aggressive style of defense, where he is constantly switching packages and blitzing from many different spots on the field.

With a playbook that includes hundreds of different schemes, Diaz will have linebackers bring pressure, play different fronts and sometimes even drop back into an unconventional coverage scheme.

Keenan Robinson and Emmanuel Acho are gone, but the Longhorns are still stacked with plenty of talent at this position.

Junior Jackson Jeffcoat, who was highly touted and continues to improve every season, returns along with fellow junior Jordan Hicks.

The Longhorns also have junior Demarco Cobbs, sophomore Kendall Thompson, sophomore Tevin Jackson and redshirt sophomore Aaron Benson on their team.

They currently have commitments from Timothy Cole and Alex De La Torre, but even without them, the Longhorns have both enough youth and experience at the linebacker position to be set for the near future.

Cornerback

With junior Carrington Byndom and sophomore Quandre Diggs returning next season, the Longhorns have a very formidable pair of corners to guard any given receiver.

Both showed much improvement and are coming off good seasons, with Byndom recording 55 tackles, two interceptions, one forced fumble and a team-leading 15 pass breakups, and Diggs recording 48 tackles, two forced fumbles and a team-high three interceptions.

The Longhorns have commitments from defensive backs Bryson Echols and Kevin Vaccaro, which should be great additions to the team, but they could have done fine even without them next season.

With junior Adrian Philips, sophomore Leroy Scott, junior A.J. White and sophomore Josh Turner also on the team, the Longhorns can be happy knowing that they will have plenty of depth at the cornerback spot next season and probably a few more to come.