Burt and Heard played big roles as freshmen in 2015 and are currently projected to start entering their sophomore campaigns. With National Signing Day out of the way it’s time to turn the page and see how the 2016 Texas signees fit onto the depth chart. Offensively that’s somewhat hard to do since it remains to be seen how Charlie Strong and Sterlin Gilbert will label positions and how many spots they’re going to list.

For this exercise we’re going to use the Tulsa depth chart from 2015 and apply to the personnel the Longhorns have. This is very much subject to change, but this will hopefully present an idea of what the Texas depth chart will look like with the signees thrown into the mix.

Quarterback

Unless something changes between now and March 7, Jerrod Heard should take the first snap of spring practice. After that all bets are off.

Tyrone Swoopes earned the right to compete based on his play at the end of the season. With that said, Gilbert is his fourth play-caller in his fourth year on campus, and Swoopes seems to have found confidence as a specialty player, of sorts, at quarterback.

Strong made it clear in his signing day press conference that Shane Buechele will compete for the starting job, so go ahead and throw Kai Locksley and Matthew Merrick in the mix as well. The depth chart has the potential to look drastically different between now and the conclusion of the spring game since nobody knows yet what Gilbert will value in each quarterback.



Running Back

Gilbert wants offensive balance, and he’s got two stud running backs in D’Onta Foreman and Chris Warren. Kirk Johnson, who might have put up monster numbers against Texas Tech rather than Warren if he hadn’t been injured early in that game, brings speed and versatility to the table that Foreman and Warren don’t.

Keep an eye on Tristian Houston, a sprinter at Galena Park North Shore who spent the fall redshirting and getting his body right after a physical senior year. This stable will only get deeper when Kyle Porter, who might be the most complete back of the bunch, gets to campus this summer.

Wide Receiver

The Tulsa depth chart and the Bowling Green depth chart are different in that the Golden Hurricanes listed two wide receivers and one inside receiver while the Falcons listed four wide receivers. Since Gilbert was at Tulsa most recently, and since he’s stated he wants to be more balanced offensively, we’ll stick with two wide receiver positions and one inside receiver spot (for what it’s worth, Baylor lists two inside receivers, two outside receivers and a tight end on its depth chart).

John Burt leads the way at what was formerly the “X” receiver position, the spot where Gilbert will use his big outside receivers (Dorian Leonard is listed at 6-foot-3, Collin Johnson is listed at 6-foot-5). The two-deep at that position at Tulsa had an average height and weight 6-foot-4, 214 pounds.

The other outside receiver, which is where we currently have Armanti Foreman projected to start, averaged a height and weight of 6-foot-2.5, 206.5 pounds. Foreman could slide inside to the slot if Lorenzo Joe, who better fits the Tulsa body type, or someone else steps up.

Once again, Deandre McNeal is the hardest player on the depth chart to place at a position. For now, he gets the benefit of the doubt that he’ll be good enough to start, so we’ll put him ahead of the two pure slot guys currently in the program.

As far as the newcomers go, Lil’Jordan Humphrey could work inside as a big slot or outside behind Burt, Leonard and Johnson. Davion Curtis is a slot guy, while Reggie Hemphill-Mapps could play inside or outside, but all of the freshmen have a lot of bodies in front of them they’ll have to move out of the way to see the field in 2016.



Tight End

We removed the fullback spot from the depth chart since none of the spread systems Gilbert is attached to use one. The tight ends are by themselves, and in this offense Peyton Aucoin is a great fit since the tight end is often used as an extra blocker capable of making a defense pay if he slips out for a route.

Caleb Bluiett and Andrew Beck, who figures to function as a fullback if one is needed both have that kind of skill set. The outlier is Whiteley, who could be an X-factor on offense depending on when he returns from his 2015 knee injury.

Offensive Line

Texas has three tremendous pieces in place in Kent Perkins, Patrick Vahe and Connor Williams. Those three will start and we’ve got Terrell Cuney, the only pure center in the program, and Tristan Nickelson, who played better than expected in 2015, penciled in alongside them.

Zach Shackelford was recruited as a center, and as a spring enrollee he’s going to have the best chance of any of the offensive signees to make a move up the depth chart quickly. Denzel Okafor, who Matt Mattox likes as a right tackle, has the tools to help the Longhorns right away.

It wouldn’t be a surprise by any means to Jean Delance and Tope Imade wind up in the two-deep. It’s a huge spring for the threesome of Cuney, Alex Anderson and Elijah Rodriguez in that regard.