Charlie Strong: Notre Dame’s QBs ‘Biggest Challenge’ For Texas

Charlie Strong led off the Big 12’s weekly teleconference on Monday …

• Strong declined to name his starting quarterback for the opening game against Notre Dame. The decision, he said, will be made when either freshman Shane Buechele or senior Tyrone Swoopes takes the field with the offense.

Strong was asked what he likes about Buechele.

“Buechele has done well and he’s competed well,” Strong said. “You have a good quarterback battle going there with him and Swoopes. The thing about Buechele is that he’s always willing to learn and always around the ball and always around the classroom and just doing what he needs to do.

“That’s the strongest thing with him is that he is what I call a gym rat, just someone that loves ball and loves competing.”

• Though many consider Strong to be on the hot seat entering his third season at Texas, he insists that has not impacted the preparation.

“You don’t dwell on it. I’m not even concerned about it,” Strong said. “The only thing I’m doing is trying to get this team ready and prepared to go play this season. That’s what our focus is all about, it’s never about me and I’m never going to make it about me. I have a veteran group and they totally understand that.”

• On opening with Notre Dame: “It gets our attention and the thing is when you play a strong opponent like Notre Dame, you go to work and you’ve been working since January and it’s always great when you open up with someone with such great tradition similar to ourselves.

“It’s not hard to get your players focused and they go right to work. They’re excited about the matchup and they’re looking forward to it.”

• Strong was asked about Notre Dame’s quarterback situation with junior DeShone Kizer and senior Malik Zaire …

“You have two quarterbacks in Zaire and Kizer and they both are different,” Strong said. “They have different styles and that’s going to be our biggest challenge.

"Both of them are winners and you look at it even before Zaire, he played well against us last year, made some unbelievable throws and made some outstanding runs. Kizer when he took over he was able to lead that team, so you have two quarterbacks with outstanding leadership ability and two quarterbacks that the offense has so much confidence in that they can move the ball and they can take control and they can generate first downs and generate touchdowns.

"You’re looking at two quarterbacks that even though they’re going to play both of them, they know they’re good enough on offense that they’re not going to slow down at all.”

• Texas is dealing with several injuries along the offensive line. As many as three starters have missed time during preseason practice.

Strong acknowledged those injuries Monday.

“We have some bumps and bruises on our offensive line,” Strong said. “We’re hoping that by the time we get to game time that we will have some guys back. We’re kind of banged up a bit there.”

• The key for Texas’ defense is improving its tackling, Strong said.

“We didn’t tackle well and we gave up too many big plays and weren’t able to get off the field on third down,” he said. “That’s where we’ve got to make the biggest improvement, and whenever we get teams down we have to be able to capitalize and we just have to be consistent on defense.

“You play very well on first down and second down and then third down has become our Achilles heel. We just need to improve our fundamentals and make sure that when we get in a situation where we’re able to make a play or two, we have to be able to do it.”

• Texas has moved two quarterbacks — Jerrod Heard and Kai Locksley — to receiver this month.

“You’re looking at two guys that wanted to make that move because they felt like they could help the team and they wanted to play,” Strong said. “In order for them to play, they made the move to wide receiver.

“It’s been great for both of them. It had been a learning curve, but they’re athletic and they have good speed and good hands and it’s not very hard for them to catch up.”

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