Texas Football: What Is Charlie Strong's Top Priority for 2015 Fall Camp?

Head coach Charlie Strong is all about disrupting the status quo for the Texas Longhorns. You're either on board, or you're on your own.

But the goal's always been the same—change the culture, then put the best possible players on the field. This fall, Strong has made forcing those players to step up his top priority.

From the moment Strong arrived on campus, he's done everything in his power to reverse the course of the program. It started with a new set of hard-stance rules, continued with surprising dismissals and suspensions and eventually led to roster moves nobody saw coming.

Seriously, did anyone think John Harris, Dylan Haines, Jason Hall, Taylor Doyle or Naashon Hughes would become indispensable members of the 2014 team? Well, they did. And all of those moves gave Strong the recruiting presence he needed to bring in the nation's No. 9 class in 2015, per 247Sports.

That success has given Strong more room to push his overhaul of this program. With a class full of nothing but players he recruited, he's showing that the roster turmoil has only just begun, per Alex Dunlap of Rivals.com:

Said turmoil made headlines again Monday, with freshman linebacker Cecil Cherry electing to transfer just three practices into his college career. News of redshirt freshman tailback Duke Catalon's similar decision followed shortly thereafter, per William Wilkerson of Horns Digest:

"

As first reported by our @WVWilkerson, #Longhorns RB Duke Catalon will transfer: http://t.co/JB2wnrFCB3

— Texas Longhorns (@HornsDigest) August 11, 2015"

The timing of these transfers will draw plenty of attention to Strong and his controversial rebuild. But this is part of the process—an inevitable event, given what we've seen through less than a week of fall camp.

Linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary summed up the staff's approach to fall camp when speaking to the media, per 247Sports.

"If we're in the middle of camp and you're basically in a dead heat with a freshman, you're going to play the freshman," the Longhorns assistant said. "You have to be able to be head and shoulders above them to justify us keeping you in there."

In short, if somebody's practicing better than you, you're not going to play.

That was the reality for Cherry and Catalon. Cherry, a 3-star middle linebacker, found 5-star stud Malik Jefferson in front of him in camp and became disgruntled about where he fit in the puzzle. That is, unless you believe this mess:

Catalon, a former head coach Mack Brown recruit, succumbed to similar circumstances. Per Horns Digest's Chip Brown, running backs coach Tommie Robinson likes what he's seeing from Kirk Johnson and Tristian Houston, with the former looking at some passing-down work early on. And Catalon was never going to compete with 230-pounders like D'Onta Foreman and Chris Warren.

These are just two casualties of the staff's free-for-all. For instance, drops have been a major problem for the receivers thus far in camp. As a result, freshman John Burt is running with the first team ahead of sophomores Lorenzo Joe and Dorian Leonard. According to SB Nation's Wescott Eberts, the freshman looks like he's there to stay:

The same thing has already happened along the offensive line. Connor Williams came in as an early enrollee and outworked the incumbents as well as JUCO transfers Brandon Hodges and Tristan Nickelson.

And, of course, we have the quarterback competition. So far, passing has been the primary assignment for the quarterbacks, and Tyrone Swoopes has been head and shoulders above Jerrod Heard, according to 247Sports' Chris Hummer. Because of that, the junior is dominating the first-team reps.

It's obvious that some members of the team don't like this "What have you done for me lately?" approach. But it's in stark contrast to the "spoiled" and "country club" mentality described by Sports Illustrated's Pete Thamel in October 2013.

Just being there doesn't cut it anymore.

So while Strong's not guaranteeing anything for anyone, he's fostering competition. Everyone believes he has a chance to make an impact, which is why practice looks like this:

The reality with this team is that it's young, and some of its most talented players will be in their first or second years in the program. But Strong can't afford to mail it in, so his priority is to squeeze every ounce of competitive fire out of each player in fall camp.

This is the next step in Strong's rebuild of the program. No matter what the product looks like when the season begins, it will be better for this process.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats and information courtesy of TexasSports.com, with recruiting data sourced from 247Sports.