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Kenny Vaccaro is the latest example of Mack Brown's staff developing a player without overwhelming recruiting accolades into a top NFL draft pick.

David Ash is Texas' starting quarterback, but freshman Tyrone Swoopes showed in the Orange-White scrimmage that he could supplant Case McCoy as Ash's backup.

Texas has gone from five wins to eight wins to nine wins as it has molted repeatedly over the past three years. But Brown is the first to tell everyone Texas is not a nine-win program. Are the Horns on the way back up?

The coaching staff decided to dive into the murky and rather deep waters of the Texas kicking game numbers during spring break. The goal was to break down where the breakdowns existed, then analyze those measurements and lend them the proper weight.

The first test is at 6 a.m today. That's when Texas coaches will find out who did what during the 10-day break and who is capable of doing what during the next seven practices.

Texas has one major opening on the offense in spring practice, and receivers Kendall Sanders, Cayleb Jones and Marcus Johnson are stepping up to try to take it.

The Texas offensive line, despite having four players who have started 90 percent of the games in the last two years and another tackle who started 11 of 13 in 2012, has not lived up to Mack Brown's recent high standard.

With so much change to its offense, it seems Texas should move on to a backup QB who best represents the future: Connor Brewer. But Mack Brown isn't convinced Texas or Brewer is ready, so Case McCoy's role will continue to muddy the waters.

This spring the Longhorns will pick up the pace, and their uptempo offense will have the advantage of upperclassmen learning it gradually in the offseason.

Texas is coming off a season in which it had the worst defense in program history. That was largely due to the ineptness of the back seven when it came to taking a player to the ground. Mack Brown is still perplexed as to why tackling is an issue.

Texas coach Mack Brown has high expectations for the Longhorns in 2013 and, behind quarterback David Ash, thinks his squad is back to competing for national titles.

Adjusting to a new offense along with a high-tempo philosophy will make spring practice especially interesting for Texas' offense.

Of all the humiliating and humbling losses for Texas from 2010-12 there was one that crippled the program early on and has left it limping ever since: coach Mack Brown's loss of belief in himself and what he does

Mack Brown and Texas, after two years of attempting to play the SEC's smash-mouth style, have decided to join college football's whiplash crowd.

Case McCoy and Jordan Hicks have rejoined the Texas Longhorns following a Dec. 28 suspension, coach Mack Brown announced Sunday night.

His playcalling was more logic than genius, and had its flaws, but Major Applewhite's debut showed the intangibles he brings to the Longhorns.