AUSTIN, Texas -- Wasn’t fixing Texas supposed to be easier than this?

One year in, Charlie Strong can confess he’s facing challenges a bit grander than he first anticipated.

"I thought when I walked in, I was just going to push a button and it was just going to go," Strong said.

That might read a little facetious, but there is sincerity in what Strong is saying. His first year at Texas felt at times like a winding roller coaster. It’s no wonder he chuckles with admiration whenever he mentions that Mack Brown endured 16 years of this.

What Year 2 holds for Strong and his Longhorns should be a bit more familiar. Consider the blueprint he brought with him from Louisville.

The disciplinary phase of his takeover is essentially complete. The uncooperative or undeserving are gone. The expectations are clear. Now he’s working to build a foundation.

And it’s clear the youth movement is on at Texas. A team with just one preseason All-Big 12 player could have as many as 20 freshmen or redshirt freshmen crack the two-deep. Four true freshmen -- linebacker Malik Jefferson, receiver John Burt and linemen Connor Williams and Patrick Vahe -- look like they’ll be starters from day one.

That is a sign of Texas' current dearth of star power, but also a reflection of how Strong and his staff intend to regain Big 12 contender status.

"We told the older guys this: If we’re in the middle of camp and you’re basically in a dead heat with a freshman or you’re even, we’re going to play the freshman," linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary said. "You have to be able to be head and shoulders above them to justify to us keeping you in there.

"If you play the freshman, it’s an investment. Now you’re building something for the future."

They know this because they have pulled this off before. The grand plan at Louisville in Year 2 wasn’t much different: A total of 13 freshmen ended up starting games for the Cardinals in 2011. That class of newcomers, led by future No. 1 picks Teddy Bridgewater, Calvin Pryor and DeVante Parker, shook up the program and sparked a turnaround.

"They brought an attitude that we want to play now and we want to win now," Texas defensive coordinator Vance Bedford said. "And that spread to the players that had been in the program that hadn’t won for a while. So you’ve got a combination of old and new, different attitude, different enthusiasm and that got the program turned real fast."

Former Louisville center Mario Benavides can recall a distinct change occurring naturally in Strong’s second season at Louisville. He backed off. Players started taking control of their team. The four-year starter suspects Strong needed them to figure that out on their own.

"He always said this: It doesn’t matter if you’re a senior, a junior, a sophomore or a freshman. You can be a leader," Benavides recalled. "You saw more guys taking ownership and you saw him yelling a little less. The goal seemed a lot clearer. The guys seemed a lot more confident."

And the Cardinals started that season 2-4. Because when you play that many freshmen, there’s no easy way to grow them up.

But by November, Louisville was ready for the moment that turned the program around. Strong led his young squad into Morgantown and stunned then-No. 24 West Virginia, a team that would go on to win the Orange Bowl and finish 10-3. That 38-35 game was won when a true freshman scooped up a blocked field goal attempt in the fourth quarter and scored from 82 yards out.

"It just shows how great we can be," Bridgewater said after the game. "People say we're a young team, we don't have this, we don't have that. We just have coaches. Once you trust your coaches, age doesn't matter."

Benavides said that upset, the highest high of a 5-1 finish to the regular season, "got us over the mental hump." Everything began to click. The final record in 2011 (7-6) belied the progress. And then Louisville won 22 of its next 25 games.

Fast-forward to Strong’s latest endeavor. He has a Texas team light on proven stars, one in need of an edge. Pundits see a seven-win season for this squad too.

The head coach isn’t afraid to say he’s still a year away, that the Horns need another class of recruits and another season of growth. That’s the recipe.

The next steps? Find the quarterback. Break in the new kids. Develop the leadership. And if those Louisville years are a sign of what’s to come, get ready for the turning point.

If Strong can push the right buttons with this group, it will happen sooner than they think.