In the world of stupid Texas Longhorns sports discussions, the current runaway leader in stupidity is talking about sophomore quarterback Tyrone Swoopes moving to tight end.
Stop it. It's not going to happen.
Yes, Swoopes played terribly over the last two games of the season, erasing any positive feelings he engendered by playing well against Oklahoma and Iowa State back in October when it looked like he might be turning a corner in his development.
Yes, Swoopes has the build of a tight end at 6'4 and 243 pounds.
But here's why it's not going to happen -- what Texas needs at the quarterback position is competition. Head coach Charlie Strong has been saying it. Assistant head coach for the offense/quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson has been saying it.
There hasn't been the necessary competition because of injuries, transfers, and general mismanagement of the position by the previous regime.
As a result of the 2013 transfer of Connor Brewer, the retirement of David Ash, and the preseason knee injury to Miles Onyegbule last fall, Texas hasn't had four scholarship quarterbacks on campus since fall camp in 2013, when Brewer left the program. And four is the magic number for most head coaches around the country in terms of scholarship players at the quarterback position.
It's the number that coaches want to to hit to feel that there is enough healthy competition and to ensure there are options in the case of poor performance(s).
Yet, when Onyegbule went down and Ash was forced to retire, Texas was down to two scholarship quarterbacks for the majority of the 2014 season.
And since it's too probably too late to add a graduate transfer quarterback for the spring semester, Texas will almost assuredly enter the spring still having only two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster since it's hard to imagine anything happening on the junior college front in the next several days.
Why would Swoopes move to another position when he's almost certain to be one of two players competing for the starting job during the spring?
Why would Swoopes move when Zach Gentry arrives during the summer, even assuming that there's a graduate transfer quarterback joining the program at that point?
Adding Gentry and another passer would still only push the number to four next fall, the exact number that the coaches want to hit.
Moving Swoopes to tight end would completely undermine the competition that the coaches are trying to create. Moving Swoopes to tight end would represent the type of quarterback mismanagement that characterized and ultimately sunk former head coach Mack Brown at Texas.
Not to mention the fact that he has an NFL-caliber arm and flashed his incredible upside numerous times in making some big-time passes in 2014.
Not to mention the fact that one of the biggest disappointments has been his athleticism getting lost in translation from high school to college.
That aforementioned upside at quarterback can't excuse his obvious shortcomings or even provide hope that Swoopes could eventually become an adequate starting quarterback in college, much less someone who could reach the still prodigious ceiling that exists for him.
But it does mean that he's not moving to tight end any time soon. Not. Going. To. Happen. So just stop talking about it because it's pointless and stupid.