DALLAS – How quickly will the veer-and-shoot offense Sterlin Gilbert and Matt Mattox brought with them from Tulsa pay off for the Texas Longhorns in 2016?

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That was one of the many questions posed to Charlie Strong at Big 12 Media Days in Dallas this week. The head coach said he’s confident in what his offensive coordinator (and the offensive line coach who has been with Gilbert at each of his three collegiate stops) will do between now and the season opener against Notre Dame to get the Longhorns ready for action.

“Sterlin knows just how quickly,” Strong said. “What you’d like to see happen is you just want to see progress.”

All signs point to Strong and Gilbert going with true freshman Shane Buechele as the team’s starting quarterback, a move that figures to give the Longhorns their best chance of finding an effective signal-caller. Strong’s qualifications for what he’s looking for in starter suggest the 6-foot-1, 191-pound Arlington Lamar product is capable of handling the gig right out of the blocks based what Buechele showed during spring practice and with what he’s done to this point in summer workouts.

“You want to make sure that you get someone who can command the offense,” Strong said. “Someone that can move the ball.”

Buechele’s skill set projects as a nice fit within the scheme Gilbert and Mattox installed in the spring, a system in which Buechele delivered a compelling 299-yard, two-touchdown performance in two quarters of action. His ability combined with the spacing and tempo advantages the offense provides and what true freshmen Devin Duvernay and Collin Johnson figure to bring to the table to help the receiving corps should all help improve the passing game. It would be hard for Texas to have a more futile aerial attack than what the Longhorns put on display last season, a production of 145.9 yards per game that ranked 117th nationally and last in the Big 12.

With all of that said, Strong remains focused on how his two big, play-making running backs -- junior D’Onta Foreman (6-1, 249) and sophomore Chris Warren (6-2, 252) -- can help Buechele and the other quarterbacks by giving Texas offensive balance. What the two backs and an offensive line that returns three starters (tackles Kent Perkins and Connor Williams, guard Patrick Vahe) who were key cogs in a run game that finished 17th in the country and third in the Big 12 (224.8 yards per game) provide is a proven commodity Gilbert can build around while Buechele gets his feet wet.

“If we're able to establish a running game, then I think it's going to make it a lot easier for our quarterback, because now he's going to be able to make the throws,” Strong said. “It's all about being balanced with the run and pass and it's what we're working for.”

Expectations are high for Gilbert and the new offense, but it wouldn’t take much to improve the offensive output against the Fighting Irish in 2015. Last year’s 38-3 loss in South Bend saw Texas set single-game lows for the season in rushing yards (60), total offense (163 yards), third-down conversions (2-for-13, 15.4 percent) and red zone trips (none).

Gilbert’s unit figures to put a much better product on the field when Notre Dame comes to town Sept. 4.

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