It took Mack Brown until 2011 to be convinced that adding junior college prospects was a feasible practice at Texas.

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Charlie Strong is adding three for spring ball during his first full recruiting cycle.

The Longhorns have received national letters of intent from Navarro College offensive tackle Tristan Nickelson, his teammate and NJCAA All-American defensive end Quincy Vasser, and East Mississippi Community College offensive tackle Brandon Hodges on today's national signing day for junior college recruits. Texas will announce the signings once the paperwork of all three prospects has passed through the compliance office, but all three recruits are officially Longhorns for all intents and purposes.

All three are going to provide various levels of depth for the Longhorns at their respective positions.

2015 Junior College Signees

Brandon Hodges

Offensive Tackle

East Mississippi CC

6-5, 295

Honors: Started for the NJCAA national champions

Other offers: Louisville, Mississippi State, Missouri, Oklahoma State and others

How he fits at Texas: Hodges will step in and have a chance to compete for a starting job right away, most likely at right tackle. Those who have watched him have said he's somewhat of a poor man's Kent Perkins, who might be the best pro prospect on offense for Texas, and is a player who is ideally suited to play right tackle or guard. If he can at least come in and solidify one of the tackle spots will will make life easier for Joe Wickline as he'll have more options to put together what will hopefully be a better offensive line in 2015.

Tristan Nickelson

Offensive Tackle

Navarro College

6-8, 300

Honors: Honorable Mention All-SWJCFC

Other offers: Iowa State

How he fits at Texas: Nickelson played right tackle at Navarro but he's got the tools to eventually be a left tackle. He can take a redshirt year and still have three years of eligibility left, so if for whatever reason he's not ready to step in and compete for a starting spot then he's got time to develop. He was considered by the schools who recruited to be a prospect with a tremendous ceiling who might be a year away from being able to help a program, but that he could eventually blossom into a solid starting tackle in the Big 12. Wickline has a track record for developing prospects like Nickelson and in January the process of developing him from junior college prospect to Big 12 player will begin.

Quincy Vasser

Defensive End

Navarro College

6-4, 260

Honors: First Team All-SWJCFB, Second Team NJCAA All-American

Other offers: Georgia and Maryland

How he fits at Texas: A former Georgia commitment, Vasser's recruitment was handled by Chris Rumph. The Texas defensive line coach did an outstanding of getting Vasser, who fills an immediate need with the departure of Cedric Reed after the bowl game. Vasser profiles well as an end in the Longhorns' three-man front, a position Reed occupied most of the year playing a 4i technique. That's a role right in Vasser's wheelhouse, but he's also got the ability to rush the passer as a strong-side end in a four-man line. With Naashon Hughes profiling better to the FOX position as a hybrid end/linebacker and with the status of Caleb Bluiett being an unknown following a knee injury against TCU, Vasser will compete with senior-to-be Shiro Davis, rising junior Bryce Cottrell and former Under Armour All-American Derick Roberson (who redshirted this season) for snaps in the spring. Of those four players, Vasser and Davis profile the best to fill in for Reed, but Davis' inability to step forward and claim a more prominent role on the defense has left the door open for Vasser to make an immediate impact.

[blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"][p]Signing my National Letter of Intent #HookEm