Texas Football: Incoming Freshmen Most Likely to Start This Season

It's pretty obvious that freshmen will be the bright spot for the Longhorns this season.

As 10 starters depart for either the NFL or a life after football, the nation's No. 9 class arrives to replenish the ranks. There will be a drop off in on-field production, but the trade-off is a tremendous group of talent that can be developed to carry this program into the future.

Before the season reaches its end, many of these players should see their first college action. The lack of returning talent almost demands it.

But who will start in his first year out of high school? Malik Jefferson and Connor Williams busted through this spring to fill spots that needed talents like theirs. Now, it's their classmates' turn to show Charlie Strong and the rest of this coaching staff that they're ready to go right away.

LB Malik Jefferson

He may have run with the second team in the spring game, but there should be absolutely zero doubt that Malik Jefferson will be a starting linebacker when Texas takes the field Sept. 5.

Jefferson is a rare example of a high-schooler with both the athletic ability and the instincts to play right away. He showed world-class physical ability at The Opening last summer, then proved mentally ready by taking on the middle linebacker spot this spring.

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Strong said freshman LB Malik Jefferson was at OLB, moved inside as well. "Very instinctive, picked it up very well."

@kbohls, 6 Apr 2015

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As discussed by SB Nation's Ian Boyd, that ability to play inside should set Jefferson's role in stone. He's the ideal, new age inside linebacker who can hit, make plays in space and explode up the middle for a sack.

Once he settles into this role, Jefferson has unlimited potential as a pure disruptive force. The Longhorns will need that now that Jordan Hicks and Steve Edmond have graduated. The coaches have acted like Jefferson will be turned loose sooner rather than later.

OT Connor Williams

Based on what we saw in the spring game, Connor Williams is already a starter as a freshman. He just might take a little longer to adjust than Jefferson.

Bulking up to 290 pounds over the spring, Williams looks like the steal of the class. A former tight end, he's got the mobility to play left tackle in the near future while bringing the nastiness to fit in on the opposite side until he gets used to dealing with collegiate pass-rushers.

As an early enrollee, Williams has put in plenty of time to hold down a position that was a revolving door last season. He has to jell with his four teammates who have now put in a lot of time up front, but the simple fact is he's too talented to ride the pine.

CB Holton Hill

There's a crew of incoming defensive backs who could earn starting jobs as this 2015 season wears on. Holton Hill seems the most likely.

Texas will be woefully thin at cornerback this season. NFL draft picks Quandre Diggs and Mykkele Thompson were both excellent in 2014, and the injury to senior Sheroid Evans left almost nothing for this team to work with in the spring.

Fortunately, the Longhorns were able to land Hill, as well as fellow elite cornerback Kris Boyd, just before signing day. Standing 6'2" with a long, wiry frame, he's a great fit for Strong's press coverage scheme as someone who can body up and run with outside receivers, as Strong said when he officially inked the elite corner:

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If you look at Holton, he's a young man that has great size and in that range of 6-foot to 6-1. You like those big corners because they can body up the wide receiver, so when jump balls come, you hope they can go up and defend. He can cover and he's long. You are looking for those long guys instead of those shorter ones. I like big defensive backs because I know he can be physical enough where he can make tackles.

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Hill will also be helped by the fact that no other corner fits that description. Even top corner Duke Thomas comes in at under 6 feet, and few of the backups are much taller than 5'10."

If Strong wants a corner who can disrupt routes at the line of scrimmage, he doesn't have a much better option than his prized true freshman.

WR Ryan Newsome

At this point we're moving out of the sure shots who will battle little depth on their way to early starting jobs. Still, it shouldn't take long for Ryan Newsome's dynamic talents to shine through.

As of now, it looks like some combination of Armanti Foreman, Marcus Johnson and either Lorenzo Joe or Dorian Leonard will make up Texas' top three receivers. There will be competition, but Foreman and Johnson have the most work under their belts, and the Horns will need the size of either Joe or Leonard on the outside.

That still leaves some room for a fourth wide receiver in spread sets, especially if a tight end never emerges. And that's where Newsome's role will bleed over from his early special teams role.

Newsome's an absolute wild man when he has the ball in his hands, possessing both good hands and vision out of the backfield (per ESPN). Whenever and wherever he gets the ball, he's a threat who can make men miss and take it to the house.

That all-purpose skill set, along with the ability to work out of the slot as a true receiver, will set Newsome apart. He may not be a traditional starter, but he'll see plenty of work on special teams and as an all-around offensive weapon.

WR/TE DeAndre McNeal

Because of his unique blend of size and quickness, DeAndre McNeal should get his shot to take over a wide-open tight end position.

To maximize the hurry-up, no-huddle attack they want to run on offense, the Longhorns need a tight end who can do it all, as position coach Jeff Traylor told the media a couple weeks ago:

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You hope your receiver can be a guy who can play [all three spots] so you can be in a spread set, to a tight end set to a fullback set. That means the kid has to be very athletic, very coachable, very smart, and can catch and block.

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Traylor mentioned spring game starter Alex De La Torre and praised probable favorite Andrew Beck, but his most dynamic option has only just now arrived on campus in the form of McNeal.

McNeal's a pretty unique athlete. At 6'2", 228 pounds, he piled up over 1,200 rushing and receiving yards as a senior in an all-purpose role usually reserved for much, well, smaller athletes. But McNeal has excellent vision in open field and is surprisingly fluid for someone who brings so much power.

It will be tough for McNeal to grab a featured role, but he also claims that Strong promised him the ball on the first offensive play of the season, as he told 247Sports' Chance Linton. 

"Coach Strong -- I talked to him on Wednesday," McNeal said. "He told me on the first play of the game when they play Notre Dame next year, he said he's going to dump me the ball."

While that probably won't happen, it doesn't sound like the coaches are going to wait too long to give McNeal the rock. It makes the most sense for that to happen with McNeal moving to tight end, but he'll have to prove he can block before he becomes a full-fledged starter.

Others to Watch

CB Kris Boyd, S DeShon Elliott, S PJ Locke

Hill leads the pack, but his three classmates also bring a ton of talent to the table. As thin as the Horns are in the secondary, it wouldn't surprise anyone to see one of them break through before season's end. 

There's a lot to like about this group. Boyd's an all-around awesome athlete who could play anywhere in the back end if asked, and he will easily ascend to a starting role once Duke Thomas exhausts his eligibility.

DeShon Elliott's also easy to peg as a head-cracking safety who can play in the box and is adequate in coverage. If Jason Hall can improve his ball skills on the back end, these two will form one of the most violent duos in the country.

Then there's Locke—a smart and scrappy DB who probably fits best as a nickel corner. He's one of the lowest rated members of this class, but fans who slept on Hall last season know Strong's an ace at finding overlooked talents, especially on defense.

Even if these guys don't start as freshmen, they have bright futures in the burnt orange.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats and information courtesy of TexasSports.com and 247Sports.com.