AUSTIN - The most striking thing about Texas’ spring football season is the extraordinary freshness of it. A program that spent the last six years idling in mediocrity needed drastic changes, so the Longhorns made them.

Take this Saturday’s orange-white scrimmage, for instance. From the sound of things, UT fans will be blown away by their team’s transformation. And as we all know, promises related to the spring game always come true.

Patrick Vahe, spring 2016: “They’ll see a different team from last season. We've progressed, and hopefully they can enjoy the show.”

Marcus Hutchins, spring 2015: “All I can say is, it's a new era, you just have to tune in and watch. … It's going to be a different era, a different team.”

Jaxon Shipley, spring 2014: “We’ll have more for (the fans). We will improve.”

David Ash, spring 2013: “We’re going to be well coached, we’re going to be disciplined and we’re going to do what we do well. I think you’re going to see good football.”

The biggest reason for this spring’s optimism is the pace. In the past, the Longhorns had been content to putter around while the rest of the Big 12 blazed up and down the field with no-huddle offenses. With the arrival of new offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert, UT finally is pushing the tempo, too.

Kent Perkins, spring 2016: “First off, the offense is a thousand times faster. Man, it's crazy. It's going to be fast and we are going to put up points.”

Johnathan Gray, spring 2015: “It’s very fast. As a matter of fact, we hit the field running and didn’t stop until practice was over.”

Shawn Watson, spring 2014: “The real important part of the multiplicity is the speed part, the no-huddle part.”

Mike Davis, spring 2013: “The tempo is the main thing. … We embrace keeping the defense on their heels and making everything faster so we can put up more points.”

Bryan Harsin, spring 2012: “We are playing faster and doing a better job on both sides. It’s that iron-sharpens-iron theory.”

Of course, we’d better not just take the offensive guys’ word for it. The true test of whether a team is playing quickly enough is if the pace makes defenders gasp for air.

Poona Ford, spring 2016: “It's tiring. There are some days where I find myself gassed.”

Hassan Ridgeway, spring 2015: “There is no way any team is going to go against (the offense) and not get tired.”

Cedric Reed, spring 2014: “The first five periods I think I was winded and I realized that, yeah, this is going to be real.”

Chris Whaley, spring 2013: “At first it was a challenge, but it's actually helped us get in better shape.”

Another bright spot? Texas coach Charlie Strong has vowed the Longhorns’ quarterback controversy will be over soon.

Strong, spring 2016: “I hope we're not talking about it in the fall. I hope that by the end of spring we can at least say, ‘Hey, I feel really comfortable with this guy.’”

Watson, spring 2015: “You don't put a date on it unless you have to. … Over the course of time, those things show themselves.”

Dominic Espinosa, spring 2014: “Regardless of the quarterback, it is a matter of getting comfortable and working together. I don't think we are uncertain of anything by any means.”

Mack Brown, spring 2012: “Let's don't have people talking about the quarterback position. Let's have people talking about, ‘We got that fixed.’”

In an even more encouraging development, fans should be excited to hear Tyrone Swoopes looks like a completely different quarterback than the one they might remember from last year.

Strong, spring 2016: “(Swoopes) is mature and much better now. He’s a lot different player (with) just a whole approach to the game. He's totally different.”

Gray, spring 2015: “(Swoopes) has grown up a lot. He's been more of a leader.”

Malcolm Brown, spring 2014: “(Swoopes) is getting a lot more consistent. He's taking over a little more than when he came in.”

The bottom line? Last year’s 5-7 finish was unacceptable, and the Longhorns aren’t about to let anything like that happen again.

Connor Williams, spring 2016: “Oh yeah, it leaves a burn. We all want to prove everybody wrong and go out and have a good season.”

Ridgeway, spring 2015: “The standard at Texas needs to be improved, that we need to get back to where we should be, that a 6-7 season isn't acceptable. … I feel like everybody is hungry.”

Steve Edmond, spring 2014: “We’ve had a bad couple of years here, but I feel like this is going to be a good year for us.”

Mack Brown, spring 2013: “We had to go through a process here of getting it back. And I think we’re headed back in the right direction.”