How Charlie Strong's Switch to the Spread Offense Will Impact Texas Recruiting

There's three yards and a cloud of dust, and then there's 59 yards of total offense in a 31-7 loss to Arkansas in the Texas Bowl. 

That's the last thing Texas head coach Charlie Strong needed to see before conceding that something had to change. First, Strong let go of wide receivers coach Les Koenning and tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator Bruce Chambers. While Koenning and Chambers had deep Texas ties, Strong's next move—to that of a spread offense—had deep in-state roots, too. 

Frankly, it's something he probably should have done when he arrived in Austin a year ago. 

Word about the switch surfaced when 2015 quarterback Zach Gentry flipped his commitment from Texas to Michigan last month. In the short term, it cost the Horns a recruit. In the long run, moving to the spread will make life far easier for Texas in recruiting. 

If nothing else, it's a matter of fit. Texas and the rest of the Big 12 sit smack in the middle of spread country. Strong has to adapt to what thousands of high school athletes in the recruiting map run, not the other way around. Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Texas A&M and TCU have all had success with their own versions of the spread. 

Strong's primary responsibility on the recruiting trail is to mine the best in-state talent available. At least on offense, he's yelling into the wind if he tries to sell someone with a spread background on a pro-style approach that no one else in the Big 12 uses. Texas' best years under former coach Mack Brown and quarterback Colt McCoy were born out of the spread. 

While a new offense wasn't enough to lure 5-star quarterback Kyler Murray away from Texas A&M, it was enough to get 4-star athlete Kai Locksley to flip from Florida State, where he more than likely would have been a wide receiver.

And, indeed, Strong noted in his post-signing day press conference that Locksley will have a shot at the starting job as a true freshman this fall. 

Strong recruited Locksley away from the state of Maryland, but there are more than enough spread quarterbacks in Texas' backyard. One, redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard, is already on the roster. 

Getting the right quarterback is crucial. It could be the thing that makes or breaks the offense, and thus makes or breaks Strong's chances of making Texas a national power again. Who knows, maybe neither Locksley nor Heard is the answer. The only way to know is to get as many guys who fit the system onto campus as possible. 

To be sure, Strong has experience with great quarterbacks, as he will forever be mentioned in the same breath as former Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. However, it's not the only position impacted by the new offense. The Longhorns will likely be moving to new formations where four- and five-wide receiver sets are more common. 

As a result, new wide receivers coach Jay Norvell, who formerly held the same position as well as a co-offensive coordinator title at Oklahoma, suddenly becomes one of Strong's key assistants. Norvell, along with former Sooners co-offensive coordinator Josh Heupel, was let go last month because Oklahoma failed to produce on offense. Along those lines, the knock (fair or not) on Norvell was that he was a relentless recruiter but struggled to develop his receivers. 

Maybe Norvell needed nothing more than a fresh start. Oklahoma spent the past few recruiting cycles finding personnel that fit more of a run and read-option based attack. For myriad reasons, the results never matched the more pass-happy approach for which the Sooners were best known. 

Now at Texas, Norvell and the rest of Texas' coaching staff can sell everything the school has to offer with a high-powered offense to boot. The pitch to incoming freshmen, such as 4-star receivers John Burt and Ryan Newsome, is that they can be the ones who light the fireworks.

That doesn't mean Texas has to get away from bigger wide receivers like John Harris, who reached 1,000 receiving yards last season. However, it does mean looking at speed guys, which TCU has been doing. It means adding smaller receivers and running backs whose roles may be those of utility players. (In that vein, Newsome is listed at 5'8" and 170 pounds and could double as a return player.) 

In time, Texas would like to be churning out skill players to the NFL at the same rate as Baylor or Texas A&M. Then, that reputation becomes the selling point as much as anything else. A handful of schools claim to be "Wide Receiver U" or "Quarterback U"; the only thing that should matter to Texas is that it joins that group. 

It may take a year before the spread offense pays dividends for Strong in recruiting and on the field. It may take several. It may not ever happen. But any second not spent on implementing the spread was a second wasted for Strong. 

Wasting away is the reason the Longhorns are where they are anyway. 

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports. All stats courtesy of cfbstats.com.