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2016 Texas Longhorns football team

The 2016 Texas Longhorns football team, known variously as "Texas", "UT", the "Longhorns", or the "Horns", was a collegiate American football team representing the University of Texas at Austin as a member of the Big 12 Conference in the 2016 NCAA Division I FBS football season; the 2016 team was the 124th to represent the university in college football. The Longhorns were led by third-year head coach Charlie Strong with Sterlin Gilbert as the team's offensive coordinator and Vance Bedford as the team's defensive coordinator. The team played its home games at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas, where the team is based.

Preseason
The Texas Longhorns finished the previous season with an overall record of 5–7, with a 3–5 record in Big 12 play; this placed Texas at seventh in the conference. Although select 5–7 football teams, namely those with the highest Academic Progress Rates (APR), filled several bowl games as an inadequate number of teams finished with the six wins traditionally required for bowl eligibility, Texas did not have a high enough APR; thus, the season ended with a regular season upset win over the Baylor Bears. Towards the end of the 2015 season, Texas' administration reportedly began showing interest in hiring then TCU co-offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie to serve as an offensive coordinator for the Longhorns in 2016. This interest culminated in several meetings and an eventual offer by Charlie Strong in early December 2015; Cumbie eventually turned down the offer. Concurrently, the Longhorns administration expressed interest in Tulsa co-offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert for the same job at Texas, among other candidates. Despite media reports suggesting that Gilbert took the Texas job on December 11, later reports from the same day indicated that Gilbert had also turned down the coaching offer. Allegedly, inconsistencies with the exact terms of the offer led to Gilbert's initial refusal. However, further negotiations between Texas and Gilbert resulted in the official announcement of Texas' hiring of the former Tulsa offensive coordinator, along with Gilbert's offensive line coach, Matt Mattox, on December 12, 2015. Consequently, offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and offensive line coach Joe Wickline, who had remained a part of the Texas coaching staff since 2014, were released. Concurrent with Texas' search for a new offensive coordinator, Missouri reportedly showed interest in Texas special teams and tight end coach Jeff Traylor. On December 16, Traylor was offered and accepted a pay raise from the Longhorns, suggesting that Traylor's scheduled interview with the Missouri Tigers was eventually canceled. Traylor later interviewed for the vacant head coach position at Texas State in January 2016, though Texas State would eventually hire Everett Withers as head coach. Traylor's son, Jordan Traylor, became a graduate assistant for the Longhorns on January 8 after finishing his collegiate football career at Texas A&M. On January 18, Texas running backs coach Tommie Robinson announced his departure from Austin to join the University of Southern California (USC) coaching staff for the same position, meaning that none of initial offensive staff hires made by Charlie Strong at the beginning of his first year at Texas will be set to coach the Longhorns in 2016. On February 11, Texas defensive backs coach Chris Vaughn was dismissed from the team after he was implicated in an ongoing NCAA investigation of the Ole Miss Rebels football team. The same day, wide receivers coach Jay Norvell left the University of Texas to coach at the same position at Arizona State, resulting in a total of three significant coaching vacancies at Texas by mid-February. On February 12, Texas was set to reportedly hire Purdue defensive backs coach Taver Johnson; however, Texas would eventually hire Arkansas defensive backs coach Clay Jennings on February 17 to fill the same vacant position at Texas. Concurrently, the Longhorns hired two other coaches to fill Texas coaching vacancies, including former Toledo Rockets co-offensive coordinator Anthony Johnson as a running backs coach on February 13 and former Indianapolis Colts running backs coach Charlie Williams as a wide receivers coach on February 15. Around the same time, Texas A&M pitched an offer to Longhorns defensive line coach Brick Haley, though Haley decided to stay with the Longhorns. Spring practice The Longhorns began spring practice on March 7, which subsequent practices interspersed over the following weeks. Charlie Strong noted that the top three priorities for spring practice were to develop Texas' defensive linemen, wide receivers, and quarterbacks. Spring practices began utilizing shoulder pads on March 11. On March 29, Jerrod Heard, who had served as the starting quarterback for Texas during several games in 2015, suffered a shoulder injury during practice. Although no timetable for his return to practice was set, the university indicated the injury was a minor sprain of his throwing shoulder. By April 5, the Longhorns had completed ten spring practice sessions. Spring game • Source: Texas' annual Orange-White spring game was set for April 16 at the Longhorns' home field in Austin, Texas; this placed the game 141 days before Texas' first official game against Notre Dame. Although the game was scheduled to play out over four quarters, inclement weather forced the spring game to end after halftime. Throughout the game, the 'Texas' team represented the first-team, while the 'Horns' represented the second-team. The spring game featured the hurry-up offensive scheme introduced by new offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert. Fall practice Camp practices in the leadup to the 2016 football season began on August 6. During fall practice, former starting quarterback Jerrod Heard was moved to the wide receiver position. ==Recruiting==
Recruiting
Following the 2016 recruiting cycle, a total of 28 players signed their National Letter of Intent to become a part of the 2016 Texas Longhorns football team. Prior to National Signing Day on February 3, 2016, 17 players had pledged their commitments to the Longhorns, while four of these players became early enrollees at the beginning of the 2015-16 spring semester. On the weekend of January 16–17, Texas hosted 19 prospective and committed players on official visits to the campus; Shortly afterwards, former longtime Kansas State commit Zach Shackelford, an offensive linesmen, flipped his commitment to the Longhorns. Two days later, Shackelford, along with three other Longhorns recruits, became early enrollees as Texas for the school year's spring semester; as a result, all four were eligible for spring practice with the Longhorns football team in 2016. On January 24, former cornerback prospect Obi Eboh dropped his commitment to Texas, instead opting to sign with Stanford. On National Signing Day, seven players announced their commitment to the Texas football team and faxed their letters of intent. According to ESPN's metrics, Texas' recruiting class had climbed over 20 spots to hold a top 10 ranking following the prolific recruiting day. Among these recruits was runningback Erick Fowler, who had been committed to Louisiana State (LSU) up until National Signing Day. Following National Signing Day, Texas' 2016 recruiting class was ranked as the 13th, 10th, 13th, and 8th best in the country by 247Sports.com, ESPN, Rivals.com, and Scout.com, respectively. All four recruiting services listed Texas as having the best 2016 recruiting class in the Big 12 Conference. After additional recruits signed in June 2016, Texas' recruiting class was ranked 9th, 7th, and 3rd by 247Sports.com, Rivals.com, and Scout.com, respectively. the players were able to change schools after Baylor failed to submit their national letters of intent to Big 12 Conference offices, allowing the players to request a release from the letter. Both 247Sports.com and Scout.com listed safety Brandon Jones of Nacogdoches High School as Texas' highest rated recruit; both services considered Jones to be the best safety prospect in the United States for 2016. According to ESPN, Texas' highest rated recruit was linebacker prospect Jeffrey McCulloch; fourteen of Texas' twenty-eight recruits, including McCulloch, were listed on the ESPN 300, which listed the 300 top recruiting prospects nationwide according to the network's metrics. Rivals.com listed linebacker and former LSU-commit Erick Fowler as Texas' top recruit for 2016. Buechele also participated in Nike's The Opening alongside future Texas recruits Eric Cuffee, Erick Fowler, and Jeffrey McCulloch. Three players formed a part of the 2016 U.S. Army All-American Bowl, while four participated in the 2016 Under Armour All-America Game; another three recruits played in the 2016 Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl. Recruits ==Personnel==
Personnel
A search for a new Texas offensive coordinator in December 2015 concluded with the official hiring of former Tulsa co-offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert on December 12, 2015 as both an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks' coach. As part of the negotiations, Matt Mattox, the former Tulsa offensive line coach, was also named to the same position at Texas. Both coaches were given three-year coaching contracts, with Gilbert and Mattox awarded $850,000 and $550,000 annual salaries, respectively. On December 26, 2015, Texas defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway declared for the 2016 NFL draft, thus forgoing his fourth year as part of the Longhorns football team. Jermaine Roberts, a cornerback recruit for Texas in 2014, announced his transfer from the Texas football team in February 2016; former Longhorns defensive backs Adrian Colbert and Bryson Echols similarly announced to transfer from the university in February. In addition to Texas' 2016 recruiting class, former LSU placekicker and 2015 Lou Groza Award semifinalist Trent Domingue signed a financial aid agreement to join the Texas football program as a graduate transfer on July 24, 2016. Roster Preseason coaching changes DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Define $now = 08/10/2016 ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:09/01/2015 till:09/01/2016 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:lightline value:rgb(0.5,0.5,0.5) id:bg value:white id:current value:rgb(0.81,0.41,0.16) id:former value:rgb(0.85,0.55,0.35) PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:current from:start till:end text:Charlie Strong (Head coach) bar:2 color:current from:start till:end text:Vance Bedford (Defensive coordinator) bar:3 color:former from:start till:12/12/2015 text:Shawn Watson bar:3 color:current from:12/12/2015 till:end text:Sterlin Gilbert (Offensive coordinator) bar:4 color:current from:start till:12/12/2015 text:Jay Norvell (Co-offensive coordinator and Wide Receivers coach) bar:5 color:former from:start till:12/12/2015 text:Joe Wickline bar:5 color:current from:12/12/2015 till:end text:Matt Mattox (Offensive Line coach) bar:6 color:current from:start till:end text:Jeff Traylor (Tight Ends and Special Teams coach) bar:7 color:former from:start till:01/18/2016 text:Tommie Robinson bar:7 color:current from:02/13/2016 till:end text:Anthony Johnson (Running Backs coach) bar:8 color:former from:12/12/2015 till:02/11/2016 text:Jay Norvell bar:8 color:current from:02/15/2016 till:end text:Charlie Williams (Wide Receivers coach) bar:9 color:current from:start till:end text:Brick Haley (Defensive Line coach) bar:10 color:current from:start till:end text:Brian Jean-Mary (Linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator) bar:11 color:former from:start till:02/11/2016 text:Chris Vaughn bar:11 color:current from:02/17/2016 till:end text:Clay Jennings (Defensive backs coach) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/2016 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightline unit:month increment:1 start:09/01/2015 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:^"2015–2016 Texas Longhorns coaching changes" Returning starters Texas' 2016 team will feature seven offensive players and ten defensive players that started games for the team in 2015, as well as punter Michael Dickson. In addition, fifteen other players that saw substantial playing time in 2015 are set to return as part of the Longhorns in 2016. Offense Defense Special teams Award watch lists In addition to individual awards, linebacker Malik Jefferson was named to Sporting News' Preseason All-American first team on July 1. Jefferson was also named to the Preseason All-Big 12 team on July 13, alongside cornerback Davante Davis and offensive linesmen Patrick Vahe and Connor Williams. The Big 12 also identified Jefferson as the Big 12 Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. • Walter Camp Award :Malik Jefferson • Doak Walker Award :D'Onta Foreman :Chris Warren III • Outland Trophy :Connor Williams • Bednarik Award :Malik Jefferson • Bronco Nagurski Award :Malik Jefferson • Butkus Award :Malik Jefferson Depth chart ==Schedule==
Schedule
Texas will play its first three games against teams outside the Big 12; two of these will be at home and one will be played away. The opening game against Notre Dame will be the second consecutive year in which the two teams have played as part of a scheduling agreement made in 2010. Although the game was initially scheduled on September 3, in April 2016 the game was moved to the following day to maximize national coverage. Similarly, a deal made in 2009 pits Texas and California Golden Bears football in a non-conference game, while the game between Texas and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) replaces an initially scheduled home-and-home series between Texas and Minnesota. On November 24, 2015, the Big 12 released its tentative schedule for intra-conference games, occupying the remaining nine games on Texas' schedule; four of these games are to be played at home, four away, and one game, the Red River Showdown, will be played in Dallas, Texas. Although the Red River Showdown is set to take place on a team-neutral field, Oklahoma is designated as the home team on even-numbered years; thus, Texas will serve as the away team during the 2016 edition of the rivalry game. Conference games are set to be played in a round-robin format, and thus all Big 12 teams will face all other teams within the conference. Kickoff times for Texas' games against UTEP, California, and TCU were released by the conference on June 1. The Longhorns will play on consecutive weeks from September 4 to November 24 with the exception of the week of September 24, which serves as a bye week. In addition, Texas will not play a game on the week of December 3 in contrast to six other Big 12 teams. All games will be played on Saturday except for the game against Notre Dame, which will be played on Sunday, and the game against TCU, which will be played on a Friday. Texas had switched between playing TCU or Texas Tech on Thanksgiving after Texas A&M left the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 2012. }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} • Largest attendance recorded at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium. The record would later be broken on September 15, 2018 with an attendance of 103,507 against USC. Media affiliates Texas' flagship radio station is KTXX-FM ("The Horn", 104.9 FM) based in Austin, Texas. Fourteen other FM stations and twenty-one AM stations cover UT's football games around Texas, while a pair of FM and AM stations based in Austin cover Texas games in Spanish. Texas Longhorns football games are broadcast via satellite radio on Sirius channel 117, XM channel 202, and SiriusXM channel 969. On June 1, the Big 12 announced that the Red River Rivalry game between Texas and Oklahoma would be televised by Fox Sports 1, making it the first time since 1998 that a FOX-affiliated channel covered the game; between 1998 and 2016, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) carried the rivalry game. ==Rankings==
Rankings
The preseason Coaches Poll was released on August 4, 2016, with Texas outside of the top 25 but receiving 34 points; this marked the first time the Longhorns appeared in any of the major ranking polls since Week 7 of 2015. Similarly, the preseason AP Poll, released on August 21, 2016, placed Texas outside of the top 25 but awarded the Longhorns 12 points. In both polls, Texas was the fifth highest ranked team in the Big 12. ==Game summaries==
Game summaries
Week 1: vs. No. 10 Notre Dame • Sources: Leading up to Texas' opening game against Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish were favored to win by three to four points. The game between Texas and Notre Dame was to be the debut of Bevo XV, the fifteenth of a succession of live Texas longhorn mascots that traditionally appear at Texas' football games. Buechele became the first true freshman to start for Texas in a season opener since 1944. At the game, 102,315 people were in attendance at Darrell K. Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium, setting an attendance record for the venue and beating the former record of 101,851 set during the 2012 game between Texas and West Virginia. The game is also notable for the commentary on the game-winning score by Joe Tessitore in which he proclaimed "Texas is back, folks!" With the victory, Texas moved to 1–0 for the year. Entering week 2, Texas was favored to win by roughly 30 points against UTEP, and began a game as a ranked team for the first time in Charlie Strong's tenure at Texas. The game started with the Longhorns kicking off to UTEP, Week 3 (at California) • Sources: Prior to the game, bookmakers favored Texas to win by around seven points. Following a string of injuries that occurred during Texas' first game against Notre Dame, all starting players that had sat out during the game against UTEP were expected to play against California. Texas' first road game of the season began with California receiving the ball, and the Golden Bears' first drive led to a 29-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Davis Webb to receiver Jordan Veasy; Texas would also score on their first possession off of a 4-yard run by Chris Warren III, tying the game early in the first quarter. California's next two drives ended in a turnover on downs and a punt, allowing the Longhorns to pull ahead 17–7 with a Trent Domingue field goal and another rushing touchdown by Warren III; however, the Golden Bears were able to score a rushing touchdown at the end of the first quarter to narrow the score to 17–14. The second quarter featured a combined 37 points between the two teams, with scoring plays that included a 41-yard pass from Buechele to Warrick and a safety for the Longhorns and a 29-yard pass from Webb to receiver Melqui Stovall. Texas quarterbacks Swoopes and Buechele were each intercepted once in the second quarter, though Buechele left the game briefly in the quarter due to a possible injury after starting the game. A long 51-yard field goal attempt by Domingue to end the half missed, keeping California in the lead 35 33 to the half. Week 5 (at Oklahoma State) • Sources: Oklahoma State was favored to win by 2–3 points before the game. Week 6 (vs. Oklahoma) • Sources: Oklahoma was favored to win by 13–14 points. Week 7 (vs. Iowa State) • Sources: Week 8 (at Kansas State) • Sources: Week 9 (vs. Baylor) • Sources: Week 10 (at Texas Tech) • Sources: Week 11 (vs. West Virginia) • Sources: Week 12 (at Kansas) • Sources: The overtime loss to Kansas was the Longhorns' first loss to the Jayhawks since 1938. Week 13 (vs. TCU) • Sources: