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The Texas Longhorns had 10 true freshmen who started at least one game and 17 of the 23 members of the 2015 signing class saw the field last season.

Charlie Strong hasn’t been afraid to play newcomers in either of his first two seasons on the Forty Acres and the same will be true in his third season. The 2016 recruiting class finished ranked as the nation’s No. 7 overall haul according to the 247Sports Team Rankings and Strong is planning on using more than a few of the 28 signees.

“Some of them may have an opportunity to start or they're going to add a lot of depth for us, which you’d like to see happen,” Strong said at Big 12 Media Days in Dallas last week. “But it's all about the preparation and if you get guys prepared the right way doesn't matter.”

It especially doesn’t matter for skill athletes as far as Strong is concerned. Running back Kyle Porter, inside receiver Devin Duvernay, outside receiver Collin and safety Brandon Jones are among the players on the perimeter who can help the Longhorns immediately. A lot of expected of those players and, in Strong’s estimation, the transition to the college game should be a relatively smooth one.

“It's just athlete on athlete,” Strong said. “With skill guys you can see it happen.”

When it comes to the big boys in the trenches it can be a process to get them ready for game action.

“If I'm a freshman defensive lineman or offensive lineman, and I'm going against a veteran who’s been four or five years into someone's program, they're a lot bigger and stronger,” Strong said. “They're going to know a lot more.”

With that in mind, the most important position coaches on the staff in terms of how they develop guys in the preseason will be offensive line coach Matt Mattox and defensive line coach Brick Haley.

Including spring enrollee Zach Shackelford, Mattox has six true freshmen in his room and several of them could wind up playing significant roles. Shackelford is the team’s projected starting center but Patrick Hudson and Denzel Okafor appear on their way to knocking on the door for starting jobs while Jean Delance, J.P. Urquidez and Tope Imade could all wind up cracking the two-deep depth chart by the time the dust settles on the season.

Haley has five defensive tackles on campus going through offseason conditioning right now and they too could wind up playing a lot since the Longhorns only return three scholarship interior defenders. U.S. Army All-American Jordan Elliott has gotten rave reviews this summer, but the other four signees could all potentially contribute to the cause this fall.

As of Wednesday the Longhorns have 39 days remaining until the season opener against Notre Dame, which gives Mattox and Haley a little more than a month to get a pair of young but talented groups of newcomers up to speed.

“If a guy can run and jump, he's going to use his athletic ability to overpower someone,” Strong said. “So the biggest concern is up front because you talk about the linemen, so now you've got to make sure that you bring them along.”

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