Don’t look for Texas Longhorns sophomore quarterback Jerrod Heard to make a position change any time soon after head coach Charlie Strong shot down the idea on Tuesday at Big 12 Media Days in Dallas.
With freshman Shane Buechele the likely starter at quarterback for the ‘Horns, there has been plenty of speculation about a potential position change to wide receiver for Heard, who missed the last part of spring with a shoulder injury.
But that may actually be part of the reason that Strong wants to keep him at the position.
“You’re going to always need those quarterbacks because you never know what’s going to happen,” Strong said. “So right now Jerrod is at quarterback and he’s just a little bit behind because of what happened to him in the spring with his injury.”
Likely running third in the quarterback race, the 6’3, 201-pounder needs to make up some ground quickly to have a shot of getting on the field without an injury or a fair amount of ineffectiveness in front of him.
After what happened to Baylor last season, though, it’s understandable why Strong wants to have three quarterbacks available and comfortable in the offense — there’s a chance that he could need all of them.
Right after the end of spring practice, it looked like there was a chance that Heard was preparing for a move to wide receiver after a video surfaced in which he did a backflip wearing receiver gloves.
However, Strong also shot down the idea that Heard had been spending time catching passes this summer.
Asked Strong about Jerrod Heard playing some WR this summer. "I think those guys were messing around. He’s not playing receiver."
— Max Olson (@max_olson) July 20, 2016
So while there’s still a solid chance that the former No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the country ends up playing wide receiver before he leaves Austin, Heard will get ample opportunities to prove that his home is at quarterback.