Texas Football: Burning Questions Ahead of the Longhorns' Bowl Game

Hoping to end their season with a winning record, Charlie Strong and his Texas Longhorns take on the Arkansas Razorbacks in the AdvoCare V1000 Texas Bowl on December 29.

To come away with that win, they'll have to answer burning questions about how their front lines will handle this tough opponent and which version of Tyrone Swoopes will show up to play.

The Hogs are physical on both sides of the ball, doing most of their damage with the ground game while showing a knack for preventing their opponent from doing the same. There should be no doubt that they'll test the Longhorns up front from start to finish.

This means that Swoopes must deliver one of his better games of the season, no matter how well his linemen play.

Can Texas Run the Ball?

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With an extra month of practice in the books, the hope is that Texas' offensive line can start creating more consistent running room.

By the time the Longhorns take the field in Houston, it will have been a over month since they got smoked by TCU. That's a lot of time for Joe Wickline to work on an offensive line that needs to figure out how to run the ball.

By just about any standard, the Razorbacks are very good against the run. They give up just 124 yards per game, allowing a mere 3.6 yards a carry, per cfbstats.com.

That's troublesome for a team that already struggles to churn out yards on the ground, rushing for under 100 yards in three games this season. The depleted offensive line has just been overmatched all season, losing player after player to injuries and disciplinary issues.

But for maybe the first time since Strong took over the job, the Longhorns have a set group that can get first-team reps for a full month. When you have a position coach like Wickline, who is one of the absolute best in the business, that's an eternity.

For the Horns, any ability to sustain drives and take pressure off the defense would almost guarantee that they'll be competitive against a tough SEC opponent.

How Will Texas' Defensive Line Hold Up?

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Texas needs another big game from Malcom Brown (pictured) and the rest of the defensive line.

There's no mystery as to what Arkansas wants to do. The Razorbacks line up behind one of the biggest offensive lines in football, per Jon Cooper of Saturday Down South, and try to run you ragged.

Being a Big 12 team, this isn't an approach that the Longhorns are used to, and it's sure to test the versatility of this defensive line.

Bret Bielema's team ran the ball on 507 of their 843 plays this season, meaning that Arkansas ran the ball about 60 percent of the time. BYU, Baylor and Oklahoma are the only teams Texas played in 2014 that boasted a similar ratio, and they combined to average 210 yards in wins over the Horns.

Led by All-American Malcom Brown, the Longhorn defensive front has still been tough in allowing 3.9 yards per carry, but this is a different animal. These guys will get beat on every time they step onto the field, plain and simple.

If they can hold up, it will take the pressure off Tyrone Swoopes to pile up points and should force the Razorbacks offense out of its comfort zone. Otherwise, they'll tire out and give up big chunks of crucial yardage.

As Brown said last Tuesday, per Texas' official website, "Our defensive line is pretty good and they have a good offensive line, so we'll just see who wins it in the end."

Which Version of Tyrone Swoopes Will We Get?

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Swoopes must play better for the Longhorns to have a real shot to beat the Hogs.

Tyrone Swoopes has been Texas' ultimate wild card all season, vacillating between a player capable of true brilliance and one who is overwhelmed by his job as quarterback.

The version that shows up in this one will largely determine the outcome of this year's Texas Bowl.

We've seen Swoopes play some very strong games this season, carrying Texas to wins over Iowa State and Oklahoma State. He also did everything he could to lead a comeback win over Oklahoma in his fifth start.

Of course, we've also seen him just hand the game to the opponent because of turnovers and all-around poor decision-making. The classic example would be his four interceptions and lost fumble against TCU, but he wasn't much better against Baylor or Kansas State.

Based on those showings, it's a virtual certainty that the Razorbacks will force Swoopes to beat them. He has to be ready for that and play with much more poise, as Charlie Strong told the media, via Texas' official website:

"

We have a lot of work, going to get a lot of practices in.  Still [Swoopes has] got to get better.  He's no different than anyone else on the team.  He's really visible with his position.  A lot of positions that need to get better, but we have this chance to really work with him.  He understands that.

"

As with the offensive line, Swoopes should benefit a great deal from the month of pure practice. He has to turn all of those reps into a bounce-back performance or the Longhorns won't have much of a chance.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats and information courtesy of TexasSports.com.