Texas spring football: Quarterback overview

Departures: None

Additions: Tyrone Swoopes, Whitewright

Projected depth chart:

Storyline:

Can David Ash make this his team?

The talk about a quarterback competition at Texas has died down to virtually nothing, even if the national media still likes to make ignorant jokes about Ash, apparently unaware of the fact that he turned in a season that was impressive overall and marked significant improvement from his freshman struggles.

The challenge for the now-unquestioned starter is to emerge as a true leader for his team. Taking over in that manner isn't necessarily something that comes naturally for Ash, who is more about leading by example, but there's another factor here that has gone underrated as many have questioned Ash's ability as a leader.

The leadership ability of back-up Case McCoy has been lauded by many, a natural personal trait that is closely connected to his extremely high level of self-confidence that at times verges into cockiness. McCoy isn't afraid to lead because he believes in himself, to the detriment of his self-awareness and understanding of his weaknesses.

The more self-aware Ash has never truly been able to take over the team because it's never really been his team, a fact made entirely clear by his short leash in close games.

That all changed with the Alamo Bowl victory when McCoy was unavailable and Ash had to work through his early struggles, which he was able to do successfully for the first time in his career, potentially a monumental step forward for him.

The word coming out from the program this spring is that Ash has been asked to step into a larger role as a leader and it's easy to see him being able to show some personal growth there as both he and the team accept the idea that the Longhorn offense in 2013 belongs completely and entirely to David Ash.

Battle to watch: The odds are high that Case McCoy will remain the back up for another season, leaving the biggest battle as the one between Overstreet and Brewer for the post-McCoy back-up job. In many ways, it may come down to a battle of preferences -- the pro-style Arizona product, with his excellent touch and anticipation or the physical East Texas runner who is thought to have some accuracy issues.

There's no word yet on potential open practices for the Longhorns -- Brown will probably reveal on Thursday whether or not that's going to happen -- but if they do, Overstreet will be a player to watch because Texas fans haven't had a chance to see him live after he enrolled in the fall, when all practices were closed, and then redshirted.

How is his accuracy after a summer and fall in the Texas program? How much of a chance will he even get to play in the spring game with potentially three quarterbacks in front of him?

Overview: The position is the strongest it has been at Texas since the spring of 2009, when Colt McCoy was still the starter and headed into this senior season. As a result, there will be much less discussion of the position, which features the intriguing battles behind starter David Ash.

The junior from Belton will have a chance to continue his progression, with the areas of emphasis, beyond his leadership, his ability to progress through his reads, show off some more of his running ability, and continue to work on his downfield accuracy, which improved both during the season and markedly from his freshman to sophomore seasons.