3 Texas Position Battles To Watch (And Who Will Win)

The Texas Longhorns have gone just 11-14 in two seasons under head coach Charlie Strong, but there's legitimate reason to believe this team will turn it around with a huge breakout season in 2016. With fall camp winding down, it's time to forecast who will win the remaining position battles. With that in mind, here are 3 Longhorns position battles to watch - and who will win them. 

Quarterback

Quarterback has been a disaster of the last two seasons for the Longhorns, with both Tyrone Swoopes and Jerrod Heard both taking turns under center - and neither having much success. Now, true freshman Shane Buechele has joined the other two in competition to be the starter.

Winner: Buechele
All reports out of Austin indicate that Buechele will win the job, showing superior arm talent. He is still a little inconsistent with his decision making, as you'd expect with any freshman, but the good clearly outweighs the bad with him. The Longhorns have already seen what Swoopes and Heard can do - and it's not great. Texas will roll the dice with Buechele and will live the results.

Safety

Head coach Charlie Strong wasn't always thrilled with safeties Dylan Haines and Jason Hall last season, who often looked slow, took bad angles and were routinely burned. True freshman Brandon Jones and redshirt freshman DeShon Elliott are putting the pressure on to take over as the starting tandem despite their youth because of their athleticism.

Winner: Haines & Hall
The Longhorns defensive backs coach Clay Jennings has said he plans to go with the more experienced duo to start the season, but it seems as though both Jones and Elliott will take over as the starters by the end of the season.

Left Guard

This is Texas' weakest spot along the offensive line, and no one has stepped up and claimed the job yet. Junior Brandon Hodges was expected to step up and claim the job, but freshman Denzel Okafor has been playing well enough to split snaps with him. This competition will likely go down until the days leading up to the season opener.

Winner: Okafor
Strong will be tempted to go with the veteran in Hodges, but when there's a competition that's this close, coaches tend to go with the younger player. Hodges will still likely see time early in the season, but Okafor will continue to see a larger majority of snaps as the season goes on.

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