Three more Texas Longhorns gone from football team

The exodus continued from the Texas Longhorns football team on Friday, as reports emerged that senior running back Joe Bergeron, senior safety Josh Turner, and senior linebacker Kendall Thompson are no longer with the team.

The first report concerned the status of Bergeron, whom head coach Charlie Strong said on Tuesday at Big 12 Media Days was "back in the mix" after doing "everything that was asked of him" since he missed the end of spring practice for undisclosed reasons.

According to Orangebloods, Bergeron has the option of appealing his dismissal within the next 10 days, which could potentially lead to a reinstatement to the team.

With the dismissal of sophomore running back Jalen Overstreet, news that emerged on Thursday evening, the Longhorns are left with junior Johnathan Gray and senior Malcolm Brown as the only players currently at the running back position who have carried the ball before. Junior wide receiver Daje Johnson may have to spend more time at the position as a result and the pressure will be on freshman Duke Catalon to contribute early.

The other two members of the 2014 Texas running back class, D'Onta Foreman and Kevin Shorter, are not yet on campus. Shorter isn't likely to ever play because of a medical condition resulting from his injured spine and Foreman spent the summer sessions attempting to clear up eligibility issues and his status is unknown at the moment.

The likely loss of Bergeron is the most significant of all the departures, right alongside the potential dismissal of junior Kendall Sanders, who likely won't ever play another down for the Horns.

Later Friday morning, news emerged that senior Josh Turner has also been dismissed from the team, according to widespread reports. The senior safety also violated team rules, according to reports, and appeared in 37 games during his career with five starts. He was expected to start alongside senior Mykkele Thompson at safety, but made his biggest contributions as a sophomore with 49 tackles and three interceptions.

On Thursday, redshirt freshman safety Chevoski Collins was also dismissed along with Overstreet, while wide receivers Sanders and Montrel Meander, a redshirt freshman, were suspended indefinitely after being charged with felony sexual assault.

In the spring, Strong dismissed senior fullback Chet Moss and senior safety Leroy Scott, two more players who had violated team rules.

Finally, the departure of Thompson wasn't due to a violation of team rules, but rather medical issues. The Carthage product had suffered from multiple concussions and didn't participate in spring practice -- his leaving football was expected and is less damaging to Texas this season because he wasn't expected to contribute.

The only question at this point is whether there is more to come or if this marks the conclusion of what has been a remarkable purge by Charlie Strong, who looks like he didn't need the help of senior cornerback Quandre Diggs to weed out the players who didn't love playing football at the University of Texas based on the choices they made.