Of the 41 states in the union that have a Football Bowl Subdivision team within their borders, none have more than Texas.

For 12 days, as teams nationwide dig into preseason drills, USA TODAY Sports’ college football reporters are traversing the state of Texas and visiting each of its one dozen FBS programs. Presenting Two Weeks in Texas …

Day 4: Texas

AUSTIN — There is always a whiff of smugness about Texas football that belies its past 40 years on the field, which have produced just one national title and only eight top-five finishes. Strictly based on résumé, this would make Texas far more like Georgia or Pittsburgh than Alabama, Ohio State or USC, the programs that typically get grouped with the Longhorns as the elite of the elite in college football.

Of course, with Texas, nothing is based on résumé. It is the underachieving trust fund baby of college sports that, in 2015, is going through something of a mid-life crisis.

All the unnecessary trappings of Texas — symbolized by the massive customized, wood-carved, burnt-orange felt pool table smack dab in the middle of the players’ lounge and the leather saddles that seem to pop up everywhere around the football building for no other reason than to make sure everyone knows they’re in Texas — have been made obsolete by the ingenuity and functionality of football operations elsewhere in the state.

TWO WEEKS IN TEXAS: Day 1 TCU | Day 2 UTEP | Day 3 Houston

Which makes it all the more interesting what’s happening these days in Austin. In December 2013, when athletics director Steve Patterson forced Mack Brown to resign, he could have taken Texas football in just about any direction short of Nick Saban and Urban Meyer. He could have gone for James Franklin’s mix of showmanship and substance. He could have made a play for any number of coaches with ties to Texas. He could have followed the trend of up-tempo football that has helped a number of schools within a 200-mile radius of Austin become nationally relevant.

Instead, hiring Charlie Strong from Louisville at least suggested Patterson had a different route in mind. Strong represented tough, throwback, defensive football paired with a pro-style, West Coast offense — a zig while everyone else in the Big 12 was zagging. After all, Alabama didn’t have to run the spread to be great. Florida State didn’t have to go no-huddle to win a title. Why should Texas?

But as Strong heads into Year 2 off a 6-7 debut, he has already conceded that his initial plan won’t work. When Texas debuts at Notre Dame on Sept. 5, the Longhorns will be another convert to the speed-and-spread style of football that has become rather homogenous in the Big 12. He’s not trying to re-create Louisville on a bigger stage; the Texas of 2015 is trying to emulate Auburn. Texas is no longer setting the agenda for football in the state; the Longhorns are adjusting on the fly just to keep up.

MALIK JEFFERSON: Charlie Strong’s biggest win at Texas

“It was just so hard; the scores were coming so quickly and it’s hard to match,” Strong told USA TODAY Sports. “I’d say probably 95% of the high schools in this state are all from the spread. A young man coming in here has been accustomed to the spread, so let’s not bring him in and all the sudden change it when he’s grown up with that the whole time. In the recruiting process, kids want to see that. They want to see you’re going up-tempo, so it’s almost like for recruiting alone, you had to go in that direction.”

That’s a heck of an admission from a Texas coach, but it’s also reality.

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For all the damage that was done to Texas in the final years of the Mack Brown era — the failure to identify and recruit future elite quarterbacks in their own backyard, the five-star players who failed to develop, the pervasive country club culture — just as important was the rise of Baylor and Texas A&M, not just as a good teams, but legitimate brands. While Texas was selling Texas, those schools were selling a style of football that arose from and was relevant to programs across the state.

Now, for better or worse (or maybe survival), Texas has fallen in line.

“I think football (philosophies) for the first time are going up instead of coming down (from the NFL),” offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said.

“It’s easy for these kids to come in and play in speed offenses because that’s what they play in high school. It all really starts with the quarterback position: Who are your quarterbacks and what can they do? There’s a lot of kids that probably, let’s say 10 years ago, would have been high school tailbacks who are now high school quarterbacks because the quarterback is able to make a lot of athletic decisions. The levels of what kind of proficient passer they are vary, but you can create a passing game with a guy who is more of a runner because of all the different options in football that play to the speed factor.”

On that point, it’s difficult to tell how quickly Texas will make progress. Things took off for Watson and Strong at Louisville when Teddy Bridgewater arrived on campus, but among the primary candidates to start at quarterback at Texas this season — Tyrone Swoopes and Jerrod Heard — there does not appear to be a second coming.

Heard, who redshirted last year because he simply wasn’t ready to play as a freshman, is an alpha dog personality who won high school state titles but might be more limited as a passer. Swoopes hasn’t won many football games — he went 1-9 as a high school senior and hasn’t been particularly effective the past two seasons — and comes off as a bit too reserved and deferential to inspire and lead the way a quarterback should.

As media members who regularly cover Texas tap-danced around that issue in an interview session last week before fall camp started, Swoopes seemed a little too willing to indulge their skepticism. Asked if he needs to “demand that this is your team,” Swoopes avoided eye contact with the reporter, looking straight ahead while saying it’s a role that needs to be earned. He showed not even a hint of emotion when it was suggested to him that quarterback was perceived to be the weak link at Texas. And then, given a third opportunity to state his case as the starter, he shrugged and said practice hadn’t started yet.

Nevertheless, Swoopes appears to be the leading candidate for now (though both quarterbacks will play at Notre Dame, Strong said), and perhaps the change in offense will help him.

“He just wasn’t ready to be the quarterback and he didn’t prepare himself to be the quarterback,” Strong said. “He figured, ‘I’m going to be behind (David) Ash. Then Ash goes down now, ‘OK, big boy, here you go.’ And he really wasn’t ready for it.”

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Strong is hard on himself and everyone for last season’s 6-7 record, which felt like underachievement after letting the lead slip away late against UCLA and losing to Oklahoma despite out-gaining the Sooners 482-232.

But he’s also very cognizant of the dynamic taking place at Texas where players he recruited are challenging the ones he inherited for playing time and control over the locker room culture. At what point that switch flips will determine how quickly the Longhorns can catch up to the Baylors and TCUs.

“I’m missing one year of recruiting,” Strong said. “I need one more class, then I’ll know. If we mess around and have a really good year this year, it’ll really be on. I need to have a good class with 2016 to match this class I just had. If I can do that, I’ll have me something. Some guys are committed but I still need to get some more guys on board because the thing about freshmen, this class, it’s hungry. They’re really hungry.”

Hunger hasn’t been part of the equation at Texas in awhile. Acting like an underdog doesn’t usually suit the Longhorns, but for now, it may be a better look than pretending they’re still a national power.

“It’s Texas” just isn’t good enough anymore. It might be again one day, but for now, the Longhorns feel like they need to follow the crowd before they can lead.

“If you look at the top 15 offenses in the country, six or seven were from this conference,” Strong said. “Points are being scored here. But you can’t lose that physical mentality. You still have to be able to run the football. At the end of the day you have to be able to line up and knock people off the football.”