Brandon Nava

Obviously, since I post on these blogs almost every day,  I am a serious football fan and I tend to be very competitive just like thousands and even millions of sports fans all over the country and even the world. We all want our team to win and win all the time.
When they don't win, we want a new Quarterback. If it's not the QB, we want a new offensive coordinator or a new defensive coordinator. Or, we want  a new head football coach altogether. We just aren't happy with mediocre and not coming out on top of the standings.

Your favorite team wins 3 straight conference championships and then they go 4-7 and everybody wants change. Right or wrong, it's just part of the game. That's true in football, basketball, baseball or any other sport on the planet. Produce results or hit the road, is the mentality of the majority of sports fans.  We just want to win and we want to win now.

Sometimes change is good and everybody lives happily ever after. But, change can also bring harm to those that don't deserve it. Some people let it be known that they believe they have been treated unfairly. While others just go about their business and act like the class acts that they are and never complain about how life can be at times.


Vernon, is a small Texas town located near the Oklahoma border just outside of the Panhandle and Northwest of Fort Worth. Vernon is the home of the W.T. Waggoner Ranch which is the type of ranch that gave Texas it's reputation of everything being large. The Waggoner Ranch is the largest spread in Texas under one fence with some 520,000 acres. Vernon is also the home town of Roy Orbison, the Grammy winning singer and songwriter.

In the sports world, Vernon produced Bernard Scott, Clyde Gates and Daryl Richardson, all cousins that play for various NFL teams. Also, current Arizona State Offensive Line coach Chris Thomsen is from Vernon.
Vernon, Texas is on the Texas/Oklahoma border near the panhandle and kids grow up there watching Texas Tech, or Oklahoma, or Texas. Fans of those schools generally don't tend to like each other and football is still king in Texas last time I checked.

Brandon Nava is the youngest child in a normal American family of 4 boys.

Brandon was the youngest of 4 four football loving boys, so  naturally he grew up around the game. He was always at the football field, always playing football and involved with the game in some way. He also played baseball, basketball and participated in track and field and he was really good at all of them being the athletic kid that he was. He was just

a normal little kid growing up in Texas and loving the game of football much like so many other young boys.

In 1988, the Nava family moved from Vernon to Mesquite, Texas a suburb of Dallas. With a swelling population of over 143,000 people, Mesquite is a huge metropolis compared to a rural  town like Vernon which has a population of slightly over 10,000 people.  Mesquite, despite it's size, still has that Texas feel to it with the famous Mesquite Rodeo.
The youngest Nava boy, Brandon, was beginning to grow and suddenly he was the biggest, the strongest and the toughest kid around and that showed up on the football field and in other sports.

Brandon played all 4 major sports at Mesquite High School, football, basketball, baseball and track and field. He was good enough, athletically, to excel at all of the sports. All of that changed suddenly after he dislocated his elbow and was unable to play baseball for a while. When the injury had healed up, Brandon returned to baseball. By this time, Brandon had grown to around 6-3 and around 220 to 230 pounds and that had drawn some interest.
The head baseball coach, Rick Geer, asked Brandon into his office to have a word with him and told Brandon that Head Mesquite Football Coach Mickey DeLamar had something to discuss with Brandon.
Coach DeLamar met with Brandon and told him he had been saving something for him for after football was over so that Brandon could focus on football. Coach DeLamar had a huge stack of letters from colleges around the country wanting Brandon to play football for them.

Brandon Nava was suddenly a very highly recruited and sought after football player. It seemed like his future was in football, so Brandon dropped out of all the other sports and concentrated on football.
As soon as the Mesquite High School football coach turned the recruiting over to Brandon, he started receiving as many as 20 letters per day from various schools across the country.

Recruiting Brandon Nava the hardest were Nebraska, Michigan, UCLA, Texas A&M and Texas. Those were his top 5, but there was also Texas Tech right there on the edge and wanting to get Nava's services. Recruiting Brandon for Texas Tech was Rick Dykes who was an assistant for his father, Spike Dykes, at Texas Tech at that time. Current Baltimore Raven Head Coach John Harbaugh was recruiting Brandon for his school back in those years, Cincinnati.

Theoretically, a college has 25 scholarships to give out per year. They also have a limit of 85 total available for football scholarships. They have a plan going into each recruiting class and take only so many players per position each year if they can get the right players to accept an offer for a scholarship.
A school might play a 4-3 defense and might try to take in 4 Defensive linemen and 3 Linebackers in any given year. Certainly, if a guy like Jadeveon Clowney wants to wait till signing day or later, any school in the country will hold a scholarship for him. He is that good.
But, to the standard 3 star or 4 star recruit out there looking to go to a college to play football on scholarship, the really big time colleges out there may or may not hold a spot for you. If they fill up at the position you are playing they may or may not have a spot for you on signing day.
All of that to say that a highly recruited guy like Brandon Nava will get a scholarship on signing day, but because of circumstances it may not be at the school he wants to attend sometimes.

Of Brandon's early favorite schools, Nebraska was the first one to come off of the board. They had filled up at his position and called him to tell him that they had no more room for him.
Michigan was next, filling up with the number of Linebackers they were taking in that recruiting class.
Later, UCLA had also filled up at LB. They called Brandon and asked if he would consider coming out to UCLA and playing defensive end. Brandon told them no, he was not interested in any position other than LB. He was a LB at heart and wanted to stay at LB.

That left only Texas and Texas A&M. Texas Tech still had an outside shot at landing Brandon at that point.

Brandon had a good friend and teammate that played along side Brandon since middle school. He was a LB named Josh Cannon. Cannon played at Middle LB and Brandon played Outside LB and they had been big buddies since Brandon had moved to Mesquite. Cannon had committed to play football at the University of North Texas. But, Cannon suddenly got sick with the rare Guillain-Barre Syndrome. North Texas football coach, Ken Simonton and his staff, were

honorably going to stick with Cannon and still sign him to a football scholarship no matter how sick he became.

Brandon and Josh Cannon were good friends and, of course, Brandon went to see him in the hospital, as good friends often do. The punter for the UNT football team, Jeff Graham, was also there visiting and as people  often tend to do he asked what Brandon was going to do about his football future, which school he was going to sign with.
Brandon being the laid back high school 18 year old that he was, had not made a decision about where he was going to college and really wasn't in that big of a hurry. Graham said he would not advise that. He said what Brandon had already found out a little that when schools run out of scholarships that is it. Brandon had seen Nebraska, Michigan and UCLA back out of recruiting him because they had filled up at his position.
Jeff Graham advised Brandon to pick a school and commit. Wisely, Brandon listened and thought it was about time to pick a school. But, the problem was, which one?
Brandon went into his room and got cards from each school and just started rifling through them and the Texas card kept coming up. Decision making process of a laid back 18 year old kid was the opposite of scientific, but the Texas card kept winning.
He started thinking about Texas and he had visited and he had liked Austin, the school, and the coaches and just about everything about Texas.

Texas was it.

He called Recruiting coordinator Randy Rodgers but there was no answer. He called again and again and there was no answer. It was getting rather late in the evening and Rodgers should have been answering the phone. He tried one more time and still no answer.

He started thinking about Texas Tech instead. He picked up the phone and dialed Rick Dykes and let it ring once before he hung up. Then, he thought he might give Texas just one more shot. This was the day before the cell phone and I have no idea why the recruiting coordinator at the University of Texas did not have an answering machine turned on. It would have been bad to miss out on commitment from a top player due to being away from the phone.
He called again and Randy Rodgers actually answered the phone that time. He had been in the shower but was excited to hear from Brandon and was excited even more to hear that Brandon wanted to commit to Texas. But, he said that he couldn't take his commitment and would run it by the coaches. Head coach John Mackovic called him in a few minutes and was excited also to hear the news.

The Brandon Nava family had been on pins and needles waiting for Brandon to make a decision. They were all waiting around to see who he would pick and they would all be fans of that particular school. If he picked the Red Raiders, they would be a Red Raider family. If he picked Michigan, they would have been a Michigan family. Same was true for the Aggies, if he had picked them.
As he told them he was going to be a Longhorn,  they were all excited and each individual member of the family pulled him aside at some point and told him they were glad he picked Texas because they had always been Longhorn fans.
Brandon's father stayed out of the recruiting process. That's somewhat rare these days as so many moms and dads want to pick the school for their kids. But, Brandon's dad let Brandon pick where he wanted to go and he was supportive of his son no matter what.

Tradition and history were a big part of why Brandon picked Texas.

Two games stood out for Brandon from the year before when he was still in high school, which is why media exposure is so very important in recruiting. The Texas- Oklahoma game in which freshman James Brown led the Horns and Stony Clark's goal line stand won the game, was an important game to Brandon. Also, the Sun Bowl game featuring Texas vs North Carolina. Who'd have known at the time, Texas would face North Carolina with Mack Brown and Texas won 35 to 31 in what would be the most exciting bowl game of the season.
Those 2 games would be a huge influence on Brandon in deciding to be a Horn.
Not surprising, since Adrian Peterson was a big Texas fan until the Sooners blew out Texas in Dallas and Peterson was influenced to head North of the Red River and join the Sooners.
If you talked to a 100 different recruits you would probably hear 100 different reasons why they went to a certain school.
Texas A&M coach, RC Slocum flew in on a private jet to meet with Brandon and his father. Brandon wanted to come in and play early and contribute. He asked Coach Slocum straight up what Coach Slocum felt about freshmen playing. Brandon was a LB and the Aggies were recruiting him as such. They were really good defensively back in those days. Coach Slocum told Brandon and was very honest about everything. He told Brandon that they didn't get to where they are now by playing freshmen. Brandon knew right then and there that the Aggies were not going to be the school he picked.
Dan Rocco recruited Brandon for Texas and he is now the head football coach at Richmond University and doing really well. 

Brandon signed with Texas and showed up in August of 1995 for his freshman season.
Brandon is pretty much in agreement with most guys you will talk to about playing major college football. The biggest differences between high school football and college football is the time involved, the number of players at your position compared to what you knew in high school, plus the size and the speed of the other players.

Texas was running a 3-4 defense when Brandon was there. They brought in 4 LBs in Brandon's recruiting class, Dusty Renfro, Anthony Hicks,  Matt Jones and Brandon. He walked into a room that was holding a meeting for the team linebackers and including walk-ons there were over 20 guys in the room. It was kind of intimidating for a freshman coming into a major college football program.
Brandon was tall and fast in high school. Suddenly, everyone was tall and fast. He went from being the #1 guy to the #22 guy,  and that was a major shock.

There were several huge adjustments when going from high school football to college football, as already mentioned.
It is a huge time commitment when you get to college. In high school, you go to school and then practice and that's pretty much it.
In college, you go to the weight room from 6 to 8 in the morning and then you go to class. From there, you go get taped up or go to the training room and sit in the whirlpool. You might watch film before practicing for 3 hours and then shower and get treatment again. Then it was off to study hall and then back for film study for hours and hours till maybe midnight. In order to be good, you have to know the tendencies of other teams and players.
Then, you get up tomorrow and do it all again. The time commitment was a complete shock for Brandon coming out of high school and for players all over the country. I'm sure any player you talked to would tell you the same.
The reason players get in so much trouble is that school ends and they suddenly have all this free time in their hands.
The second shocker was the effort. In high school you kind of got by on your ability. In college your coaches required and demanded total and absolute effort out of you. Not only in work outs, but in film study and in every area. He probably only gave 70% in high school, honestly.

Another shocker, and maybe the biggest of all, was the speed of everyone. The offensive linemen are nearly as fast as you are and can knock the crud out of you when they caught up with you. They are like refrigerators with arms. They can be 6-3 to 6-6 and up to 300 pounds and even more and can run with you.
Play books were huge. You had to know every aspect of the game.

You had to take your core classes so you can graduate but football play books and terminology was like taking another 3 or 4 hour class. There is not enough time in the day to do all that was required.
It probably took Brandon Nava a year after he stopped playing football to finally catch his breath.

College football coaches are not only coaches, but they are like the CEO of a large business or company. People always say that you get an education for free but you pay for it with your own sweat equity. A player goes from high school with maybe a few thousand in the stands to running out with 100,000 screaming people and there is really nothing like it on earth. The people in the stands have had hard weeks and the players are playing for themselves but also for all the people watching.

Brandon Nava was recently talking to an older man and the guy was telling him his sad story. Season tickets had been in their family for 50 years and they were losing them. It was hard for the family and very depressing. They were having to sell the tickets due to hard economic times. There is a whole lot more to it than just the scoreboard, but there is a huge tradition to be upheld at the University of Texas.

Brandon Nava was part of the John Mackovic program at Texas. Mackovic's team tied for first in the SWC in 1994, they won the SWC in 1995 and then they won the first Big 12 title in 1996. They lost 8 guys to the NFL in 1997 and then they lost a lot of starters to injury.
The 1997 team fell apart and they went 4-7. The players and everyone could see the writing on the wall in the last weeks and then they lost to the Aggies in College Station. Brandon went home to see his family after Thanksgiving game and he saw on ESPN that John Mackovic had been fired.  John Mackovic didn't even get to speak to his team that he had recruited or even give them an exit speech.

With the huge salaries that coaches are getting now, Brandon gets why changes are necessary but when a coach goes into your living room he is asking for a commitment to this school and to the staff and to everything about the program. When a coach is in transition it is a tough situation for guys like Brandon Nava with John Mackovic when he was there they were building a foundation and suddenly it was all gone. Brandon was an outside LB with aspirations to play in the NFL, whether a possibility or not, they were still there. Then, another coach comes and everything you have built and every foundation you have built and all of the trust and relationship is just suddenly all gone. You. as a player, have a new coach and they don't know you and they have different aspirations and expectations and different requirements. When a new coach comes in and everything is harder. They just assume you are soft and have bad work out ethics, which totally reminds of what people are hearing now about the same program after Mack Brown is gone.

This was a perfect storm for Brandon. He was excited to have Mack but soon after he got there during spring football Brandon was asked to move from LB to DE. Brandon had played LB from 8 or 9 years old up until he was 22 so he had to make some adjustments.

Then, he discovered he had a heart problem he was only finding out about right in the middle of the coaching change.

This was the first off season under Mack Brown and his new strength and conditioning coach, Jeff, Madden. It was grueling and come hell or high water he was going to whip the team into shape. Brandon was one of the faster LBs and suddenly he couldn't keep up in workouts. He couldn't keep up with his running group and couldn't even keep up with biggest linemen.
He missed 8 or 10 workouts due to a condition he didn't know about. They finally figured out that they needed to go get him checked out and they sent him to a cardiologist and found out what was going on.
Doctors found he had Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome.

He had surgery about 3 weeks before 2 a days his junior year. Nava went from starting as a sophomore and playing on every special team to a back up Defensive End and not playing hardly much at all. Brandon Nava played 11 total plays his junior year. Basically, he had to sit on the bench the entire year.
Then came the questions from family and friends. Was he not trying hard enough? What was the deal? Why aren't you playing anymore?

Casey Hampton

They had corrected his heart but he still was not playing any. Going into his senior year they asked him to move to Defensive Tackle. At Defensive Tackle, the Longhorns  had Shaun Rogers and Casey Hampton and they both played for years in the NFL and both of which have Hall of Fame potential. Those two were the starters.
Mack Brown was very upfront and he told Brandon he needed to gain some weight.
Cole Pittman was an incredible talent, but very young. He was ahead of Brandon on the depth chart, also. Cole Pittman was just coming into his own and about to make a name for himself at Defensive Tackle when he was tragically lost in an automobile accident a short time later.
That is for anther blog here. The loss of Cole Pittman was devastating on so many levels. Not only did a family lose their beloved son, but Texas lost an outstanding citizen and inspirational leader and a team favorite. It also cost Texas a really good defensive player and then eventually would cost Texas a starting Defensive End in Cole's younger brother, Chase. Just devastating.

There was also a Defensive Tackle from Lufkin, Miguel McKay, in the mix. Cole Pittman and Mckay were being groomed to take over for Hampton and Rogers the following season.

I asked Brandon what the differences were between the two different coaching staffs, Mackovic's and Brown's.

The difference between the two staffs was John Mackovic was an NFL guy and ran his program like an NFL program and made them wear a suit and tie and Mack Brown was more of a people person. Mack played better defense and was better on special teams. Mackovic was an offensive genius.
Mackovic's Strength coach was Rock Gullickson, Dana Laduc was the long time Strength coach before Gullickson. Jeff Mad Dog Madden was Mack's Strength and Conditioning coach. Gullickson was Brandon's strength coach for 3 years. Strength coaches are very important in the day to day life and spending time with the players. Strength coaches wear a lot of hats, big brother, disciplinarian, and other important roles. In the 4th quarter some teams will run out of gas and the teams that have the good conditioning are the ones doing the work during the off season. Strength coaches take that personally. Rock Gullickson is with the St Louis Rams now. He's been all over the NFL. Madden is one of the best today and one that kind of started a lot of things. There are many different strength and conditioning styles but at the end of day they are just there to motivate and get the best out of you and ask everything out of you. Once you get to know them then you will do anything for them. Pat Moorer is new guy for coach Charlie Strong.

When asked what he knew or how he felt about the

new coaching staff he was honest in letting me know that he hasn't been around the new staff.

The only thing Brandon has heard is that Charlie Strong has two passions in his life, football and family. He got here and was behind the 8 ball immediately and hit the ground running with recruiting and then went through Spring Ball. He's always had really good defenses and good teams. Strong seems to know what he is doing. Big 12 is different than what Strong is used to, and most people don't realize that half time Texas was tied with Baylor 3-3 at the half. As bad as it has been lately on the 40 Acres, it's not that far off. Brandon did not say as much, but it feels like he thinks the 2014 edition of the Texas Longhorns should be pretty good.

I am not a fan of the Longhorn Network and asked how Brandon felt about things.

There is an extreme bias towards SEC in media. It's been slanted from media stand point.
Longhorn Network when it came out he thought it had the potential to be really good or really bad. He has never had it or even seen it. He could see all the games before the Longhorn Network. He doesn't see much coverage on ESPN of the longhorns. He feels it has limited the coverage of the Horns. He feels like it has been kind of minimized a little bit. If you have it you can see some good stuff.  Longhorn Network has not benefited the university other than financially. It's a work in progress.
In topics they are discussing on ESPN, then ESPN leaves it up to the Longhorn Network now and the average guy just doesn't see the Longhorn brand, anymore. You just don't see the horns covered much anymore, and the Aggies have filled the void.





College and NFL football fans have high expectations and want to win it all every year. When a team falls short for whatever reason, the fans often want change. It is a what have you done for us lately mentality.
Change can be good. Sometimes change can bring more of the same and sometimes things can even get worse on the football field.
But what we fans don't see or don't get sometimes is the people that can be hurt behind the scenes sometimes. Jobs are lost, people are replaced and sometimes people that aren't deserving come through battered and torn.
Brandon Nava is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet or run across on this planet. He is a good guy in every possible way. Brandon Nava never said one negative word about the new coaching staff when I talked with him at length, and never said one bad word about the school for replacing his coach. I have talked to Brandon quite a few times and I have never heard one negative word coming out of his mouth about anyone.
Any negative comments about this situation I am discussing in this post come from me. As a football fan, I knew all about Mack Brown when Texas hired him from North Carolina. I knew he was an outstanding recruiter and a pretty decent coach. I was excited for him and for the school and for the state of Texas in general that such a guy would come in and maybe take Texas to a national title or two.
He did win one and lost out on another. What I never really ever considered before is what happens to the majority of the guys really involved. Ricky Williams was a junior at Texas at the time. Nothing bad is going to happen to a franchise player like Ricky Williams. Williams won the Heisman Trophy in Mack Brown's first year at Texas and things worked out really well for him other than some poor judgement by Ricky.
Guys like Brandon Nava were a different story. Nava was a LB. He wanted to be a LB. The new staff moved him to Defensive End and then later to Defensive Tackle knowing fully well that he was not going to play there and had no chance to play there other than to add depth to the roster.
Best for the team? Yes, but was it good for Brandon Nava?

Not so much, but he gave his all and he never complained. 

Jeff Leiding 1983 All-American Thanks for The Memories

Jeff Leiding was one of those guys that I saw around town from time to time and I heard a lot of stories about his craziness off the field. I never saw any of that personally and he was always friendly to me.

I hadn't heard much about Jeff Leiding lately and was just getting to the 1983 college football season in my blog which was Leiding's last season in college.

I was just thinking about Leiding and the Texas Longhorn defense of 1983 when considering a game to write about. The Texas defense in 1983 was one of the better ones in the history of the game. Early in the season, they beat Auburn 20-7 in a game that was not as close as the score. They didn't allow Auburn to cross the 50 yard line until the 4th quarter and Auburn legend Bo Jackson was held to 35 yards rushing.
Later, against arch rival Oklahoma, the Texas defense crushed Sooner super star Marcus Dupree and he would never play another down of college football.  The defense was just phenomenal and Jeff Leiding was it's Middle Linebacker and a consensus first team All-American.
He was also the inspirational leader of that defense.

Jeff Leiding passed away over the weekend of an apparent heart attack. He was 52 years old.


Leiding was born and raised in Kansas City, but later moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma where he attended Union High school for one season. He was a Parade All-American and considered the top LB recruit in the entire country and one of the very best recruits overall.
In spite of his father playing basketball at Missouri, Jeff Leiding picked the University of Texas to play his college football.
He was a member of the 1980 recruiting class and for those that always say that recruiting doesn't matter, Leiding certainly lived up to the hype and maybe even then some.

I will never forget his first college football play.

It was my birthday, September 1st 1980. There was a small gathering at my house and of course I wanted to watch football. Several schools had done really well with the 1980 recruiting class including Texas, Texas A&M and Ohio State. I was anxious to see some of these new guys get on the field. Young football fans don't even know how great they have it these days because we had to wait till the season got started to see these guys in action.

Texas just happened to open up with Arkansas in 1980 which was extremely rare. Normally, they open up with a weak sister game.
Leiding, as a true freshman, naturally was immediately on the special teams. He came flying down the field at full speed and dove right over a Razorback trying to block and knocked the return man out cold.
Unfortunately, Leiding also injured his shoulder and had to miss a lot of his freshman season.

Leiding suffered through several injuries while at Texas. But, by his senior season of 1983 he was completely healthy and he dominated.

That defense was loaded and 9 of them were taken in the 1984 NFL draft. The 2 that weren't taken were juniors and would be taken the following year.

Texas was ranked #2 all season long and were leading Georgia 9-3 in the Cotton Bowl when a Texas player who shall remain unnamed dropped a punt in the closing minutes and allowed Georgia to score a late TD and win 10-9.
Later that evening, Miami would shock Nebraska and the rest of the world and beat the Huskers 31-30 in the Orange Bowl to win the National title.

After ending his career at Texas as a 1st team All-American, Jeff Leiding was a 5th round draft pick by the St Louis Cardinals. He was with the Cardinals for a couple of seasons and then spent 2 years with the Indianapolis Colts.

Thanks for the memories, Jeff Leiding. You will be missed.


I want to dedicate this post to another Jeff. We just heard my friend Jeff Coston also died of a heart attack this morning on July 15th, 2014.

2014 Texas Longhorns

#19 Texas Longhorns My Very Early Top 25

Texas is the only school in my top 25 with a brand new head football coach. Charlie Strong was a great defensive coordinator at South Carolina and then at Florida. He then did an excellent job as the head coach at Louisville. I believe he will do the same at Texas, and do it pretty quickly.
Charlie Strong’s specialty is defense. His defense at Louisville was either the best in the country or right up there with Michigan State. The Longhorn defense will improve right away and it will need to.
The Texas defense lost All American Jackson Jeffcoat up front. But, they do return Cedric Reed (6-6,260) and he sacked the QB 10 times last season and he was 3rd on the team in tackles with 77. He will make a lot of preseason AA teams and possibly again at the end of the year. Attempting to replace Jeffcoat is Shiro Davis (6-3,250) a junior from Shreveport. He has experience and brings tremendous quickness to the defensive line. Caleb Bluiett (6-3,255) played some as well and could be in the mix. Bryce Cottrell (6-3,240) will also play at end and he has a lot of potential.
Derrick Roberson (6-4,235) is a top recruit out of San Antonio should play a lot as a freshman. Another freshman, Jake McMillon (6-3,245) played DE but may be asked to beef up and move inside.
Malcom Brown (6-4,305) was extremely good at DT last season and had 66 tackles and a couple of sacks. The other DT spot should be Desmond Jackson (6-1,305). Jackson brings plenty of experience, but he may be pushed by Hassan Ridgeway (6-4,305).
Texas needs some young tackles to step up like Paul Boyette (6-4,295) or Alex Norman (6-4,295). In the make me feel old category, Alex Norman is the grand son of former Dallas Cowboy TE, Pettis Norman.
The Horns need depth at DT and brought in Poona Ford (6-0,285) from Hilton Head, South Carolina and Chris Nelson (6-2,280) from Lakeland, Florida. They will need to produce pretty quickly if Texas is to be dominant up front.
At LB, Texas has had issues for a while. Biggest issue is the health of Jordan Hicks (6-2,240). Hicks is one of the best players in the country when healthy, but he has missed most of the last 2 seasons with injuries. With Hicks in the lineup, the LB play has been pretty good. Without him, it has been pretty inconsistent. Hicks is a former top recruit out of Ohio and has lived up to his billing when healthy.
Both Dalton Santos (6-3,240) and Steve Edmond (6-3,245) return in the middle and split time a year ago. I personally prefer Santos, but Edmond really improved towards the end of last season. Edmond played a little at OLB last season and could move there if needed, but Santos is strictly a MLB.
If Hicks cannot go, look for Kendall Thompson (6-3,240) or Tevin Jackson (6-2,240) to play. Jackson is much like Hicks. He’s a former highly recruited player that hasn’t been on the field much due to injury and he’s running out of time.
Peter Jinkins (6-1,215) is back for his junior year and has started since his freshman season. Tim Cole (6-2,235) could contribute at LB as well.
Edwin Freeman (6-1,210) and Cameron Hampton (6-0,200) are 4 star commits that might help out right away. Andrew Beck (6-3,225) from Tampa, Florida could play in the middle, but he also may move to TE where he played some in high school.
Expect a big shake up in the secondary, so your guess is as good as mine with some of these positions.
Quandre Diggs (5-10,200) will be a 4 year starter in the secondary but this year he should be back at his corner spot after playing safety last season.
Look for Duke Thomas (5-11,175) to retain his other corner spot and he led the team in INTs a year ago with 3.
Sheroid Evans (6-0,190) and Antwuan Davis (5-11,190) are absolute burners that should see some playing time. Evans has been plagued by injuries and Davis redshirted last year.
Josh Turner (6-0,180) should start at Strong Safety.  Leroy Scott (5-11,190) just got booted from the team, or he may have challenged for playing time.
Free Safety should be a battle between Mykkele Thompson (6-2,185) and Adrian Colbert (6-2,205). Thompson has the experience, while Colbert is another burner. The 4 guys I have listed as back ups would be the fastest secondary in the country, probably. Chevoskie Collins (5-11,190) could be another challenger here.
I do expect a lot of shake up with this defense with Charlie Strong being one of the greatest defensive coaches in the country. I would not even be surprised if Texas went to a 3-4 defense as it’s base.
QB has been a huge problem at Texas since the departure of Colt McCoy. David Ash (6-3,225) has all the physical tools to be the Texas QB, but he has concussion issues. Ash was thrown into the fire as an 18 year old true freshman in 2011 and has had his struggles. He threw for right at 2700 yards as a sophomore and was injured early in 2013 after throwing for 760 yards. If you think that Ash is not a gifted athlete, go and watch the Alamo Bowl against Oregon State in 2012 and see his TD run. He is a big strong guy with a good arm, just has questionable leadership abilities. He is also one hit away from being on the sidelines again.
Depth has been an issue for a while at QB. Tryrone Swoopes (6-5,250) is a little used true sophomore that has a very strong arm, but is really rough around the edges. Swoopes was a former 5 star recruit, but played small school football and needed to redshirt last season but Texas did not have that option due to the depth issues and injuries.
The future QB at Texas should be Jarrod Heard (6-2,195). He was a highly recruited 2 time state champion at Denton Guyer High School who can run with the best of them. He will need some time to develop his passing game at the big time level, but he has the tools.
To show how desperate the new coaches are about QB, they have moved former TE Miles Onyegbule (6-4,235) to QB. He played QB in high school but was recruited to play WR and grew into a TE prospect. He was never going to play at TE so I commend the new coaches for their efforts and trying to find some answers here. I have no idea why Mack Brown let things go at this position like he did.
Texas still leads for Max Wittek the USC graduate transfer which would be huge for them. He may not be the long term answer for Texas, or anyone else, but he is a warm body and can play at least enough so that Heard can have a chance at redshirting.
Running Back is another story for Texas. They did lose top RB Johnathon Gray (5-11,210) with a torn achilles tendon, and he should miss this season as well. But, they were really deep at the position. Senior Malcolm Brown (6-0,225) returns for his last season after running for 904 yards a year ago. He has dropped a few pounds and looks prime to have a real breakout season.
`Joe Bergeron (6-1,230) is also back for his senior year after rushing for 362 yards a year ago and having 1392 career yards to his credit. It will be interesting to see what the new staff plans to do with Daje Johnson (5-10,180) an under used junior speedster that can take it the distance on any given play. He had 140 yards rushing last season and can run the 40 in the 4.3 range, supposedly.
Donald Catalon (5-10,195) is a 4 star incoming freshman that should play quickly. D’Onta Foreman (6-1,215) is a big recruit that is rated pretty low and could surprise some people. Or, he may move to defense.
WR loses big play man, Mike Davis. But, they have everybody else back and the passing game was pretty awful last year with horrible QB play.
Jaxon Shipley (6-1,195) caught 56 passes last season and has 159 career catches. He is back for his last year and should have a big season. Kendall Sanders (6-0,185) and Marcus Johnson (6-1,190) are big play guys and both are back. Sanders had 37 catches a year ago and Johnson added 22. Senior John Harris (6-3,225) is the only other WR with any experience and he has very little.
Montrel Meander (6-2,190) is a redshirt freshman with speed to burn. Jake Oliver (6-4,205) is another that redshirted and could develop into a possession receiver for the Horns.
Armanti Foreman (5-11,175), Lorenzo Joe (6-3,195), Garrett Gray (6-4,205), Rodrick Bernard (5-10,170) and Dorian Leonard (6-4,200) are incoming freshmen that could provide instant depth. Foreman and Joe could be instant stars.
Tight End is another problem position for the Horns and has been for a number of years. For a while, Texas was producing NFL quality TEs by the truck load, but that ended at some point.
Geoff Swaim (6-4,250) is a good blocker at TE, but he has hands of stone as shown in the Alamo Bowl against Oregon. Greg Daniels (6-5,250) has played here but is no threat as a receiver. MJ McFarland (6-6, 240) is a real head scratcher here. He looked ready to blossom in 2012 but didn’t see much action at all a year ago.
Blake Whiteley (6-5,240) is a Canadian transfer from a JC and could be the answer to a lot of problems. He has the hands and is an adequate blocker.
Texas hired the best OL coach in the country in Joe Wickline from Oklahoma State. But, he has a mess on his hands right now with depth and experience.
LT lost reliable Donald Hawkins. Kennedy Estelle (6-7,290) should move into this spot but he has had grade issues in the past. He does have the talent, if eligible. LG should be part time starter Sedrick Flowers (6-3,310).
Center returns Dom Espinoza (6-4,305) who will be a 4 year starter.
RG lost Mason Walters who was also a 4 year starter and the job should be a battle between sophomore Curtis Riser (6-4,310) and redshirt freshman Rami Hammad (6-5,315)
RT could be Kent Perkins (6-5,310) or Camrhon Hughes (6-7,320)
Chief back ups should be Jake Raulerson (6-5,270) at center, Darrius James (6-5,320) at either guard and Desmond Harrison (6-8,310) at tackle.
Texas is a pretty hard call for 2014. New coaching staff will be interesting to follow. Texas is a team that has deep issues, but they are also a team that has some talent. I believe the defense will be better from day one, and I also believe the offense will improve if from nothing else than better QB play.
I am going out on a limb and predicting a 9-3 season for the Horns with better days to come as Strong installs his own program.