Texas HC Charlie Strong: "We have to have a winning season"

Texas Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong held his availability at Big 12 Media Days in Dallas on Tuesdays and shared his thoughts on the upcoming season.

The team will report for fall camp on August 6 and then begin practice the next day.

-- Strong is still looking for playmakers to emerge at the wide receiver position and the first two players he mentioned were seniors Daje Johnson and Marcus Johnson. With Daje, Strong mentioned that he's still giving the speedster a hard time about not making a play since the Oklahoma game in 2013. As Strong has said for months, he wants to find wide receivers who can take a short pass and make a defender miss in one-on-one situations.

-- When asked about the quarterback competition, Strong noted that all the other players offensively need to step up. So he clearly believes that many of the issues in 2014 centered around poor support for quarterback Tyrone Swoopes, who started every game after the opener. As for the junior, the Texas head coach said that he's heard everything being said about him and wants to prove all the doubeters wrong.

-- Without the ability to watch workouts, Strong doesn't have a great feel for the quarterback competition, but Swoopes and redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard will have a chance to compete for the job in fall camp. He wants his eventual starter to manage the game and avoid dumb mistakes and dumb turnovers.

-- The two freshmen singled out by Strong as potential early contributors were linebacker Malik Jefferson and offensive tackle Connor Williams. After arriving at 217 pounds, Jefferson is now up to 240, a college-ready weight that should make it even more difficult to keep him off the field. For all the young players, "it's all about the learning process."

-- The SEC insituted a rule that bars league programs from taking players with violence issues who were dismissed from other programs. Storng supports a similar rule for the Big 12 -- while he believes in giving players a second chance, he believes that happens while they are still on the team.

-- One reporter asked about the tigers who made an appearance at the Texas facilities in early June. He offered to get one for the reporter before adding that the tigers are where they're supposed to be now.

-- There was a lot of talk from Strong about confidence and compettiiveness. He also noted that he team needs better body language, which he's said in the past was a problem for Swoopes. Strength and conditioning coach Pat Moorer has been telling Strong that there are more players stepping up this season.

-- What are the expectations this season? Strong said that the Horns have to have a winning season because going 6-7 is never accpetable at Texas. Indeed.