Texas opened spring practice on Monday with senior Tyrone Swoopes and sophomore Jerrod Heard getting the bulk of the live reps at quarterback.

Head coach Charlie Strong has promised an open competition where redshirt freshmen Kai Locksley and Matthew Merrick and freshman midyear enrollee Shane Buechele are expected to get a fair shot to win the job. All of the quarterbacks have gone into Sterlin Gilbert’s meeting room in January with a clean slate, Strong said this week, but he made no bones about expecting more from the veterans this spring.

“You think about Swoopes as a senior now, so it's time to step up and do something,” Strong said. “Even with Jerrod being a redshirt freshman last year, now he has a chance to step up.

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Swoopes and Heard competed against each other for the starting gig last spring following Strong’s first year. Swoopes won the battle, but Heard took over in the second game of the season after Strong hit the reset button following an embarrassing 38-3.

Having already been through a competition once before and now that both have starting experience under their respective belts, Strong is hoping to see the veterans attack the competition over the next 14 on-field session with a certain mentality.

“You're looking at guys and they’re older now, so they understand,” Strong said.

What’s going to level out the playing field eventually is that all five quarterbacks are learning a new offense at the same time, meaning there’s room for a young guy to pass the veterans if they can pick it up the quickest. Swoopes and Heard have started the race out in front, but the gym rat who can execute the offense and meet Gilbert’s expectations the best will be the man who eventually wins it.

With that said, Strong made it clear that he’s expecting a lot from his two signal callers who have been in this situation before.

“What you have now is that it's all new for them, so now you have a chance to go compete and guys have to step up,” Strong said. “There's no choice.”