Texas Longhorns

It's Tuesday so we're answering your questions.

Join Carter Strickland at 2 p.m. CT to chat about spring football, the results from the Dallas NFTC and Elite 11 events and what lies ahead with Texas hoops now that Myck Kabongo will return.

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Remember to tune in at 2 p.m. CT.

1. Look on the bright side: Quandre Diggs is out for the rest of the spring with a wrist injury. All signs point to him being fully ready to go when fall camp comes around. The thing about the injury is, Texas knew what it had in Diggs. They didn’t know who else was there to be a contributor in the secondary.

This is a secondary that loses senior leadership and really needed to develop depth. Along with Diggs, Adrian Phillips who is missing spring football with a shoulder injury. Now, some young guys like Josh Turner, Mykelle Thompson, Duke Thomas and Sheroid Evans will get first-team reps.

At the very least, these injuries will let the young players get some best vs. best experience this spring.

2. A statue-esque day: There was a line when Ricky Williams won the Heisman in 1998 wondering if his stiff-arming statue would have dreadlocks. Well, there’s a good chance the latest statue to honor the Longhorns great will feature his iconic hair.

A star-studded event before Sunday’s Orange-White scrimmage will help unveil a statue that will be placed alongside the likeness of fellow Heisman winner Earl Campbell.

It’s hard not to recall the countless highlight runs from Williams’ career in burnt orange. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards in all four years in Austin and stuck around for his senior season which helped Mack Brown get his Texas tenure started with some success.

Brent Musburger, who called the ’98 Texas A&M game in which Williams broke the all-time NCAA rushing record, will also be at Sunday’s event.

3. Working for the weekend: Want proof of the University of Texas’ prowess as a Division I program? Just look at the calendar or come to Austin this week.

Not only are the nationally renowned Texas Relays in town, but the baseball team will host a fellow College World Series participant – Cal – in Round Rock. Both men’s and women’s tennis teams will host matches this weekend and the softball team, which is ranked in the top 10 will host New Mexico and Tulsa.

So, while waiting for the spring game to start Sunday afternoon, stop by and see some other sports.

Time to move along the map for our next introduction to Big 12 country. With two new members joining the fold, we're asking Big 12 fans to introduce us to their fine cities.

Ultimately, it's for the new teams, but we all have plenty to learn about the cities we frequent in this league. Austin, Texas, is my pick as the best locale in the Big 12, but Fort Worth may have a case for No. 1, too. Either way, now is the time for the burnt orange to introduce us to the best their city has to offer.

So, let's hear it, Horns. Send your recommendations here. Whether it's sights to see, game-day tips or food -- tell us where to go for a good weekend in your town.

The rest of you, save your recommendations. We'll get to each school eventually.

If you missed them, here are the guides we've done so far.

The Big 12 guides to:

• West Virginia's home turf
• TCU's home turf
• Baylor's home turf
• Iowa State's home turf
• Kansas' home turf
• Kansas State's home turf
• Oklahoma's home turf
• Oklahoma State's home turf

More than 700 players came to the Nike Football Training Camp in Dallas on Sunday. Of that enormous number, a few Texas commits and targets stood out in the competition.

Longhorns commit Jake Oliver along with target Maurice Smith joined Mike Mitchell who earned invitations to "The Opening" in July.

Defensive end Torrodney Prevot, another Texas target, earned MVP honors and showed why he is in high demand with his performance which included a showdown with Jake Raulerson.

Seven-year NFL defensive line veteran Chuck Wiley first saw Torrodney Prevot (Houston/Alief Taylor) on Sunday, he gave the 6-foot-4, 205-pounder the nickname "wide receiver" because of his not so defensive end-type frame.

But once he saw the uncommitted ESPNU Watch List member absolutely destroy the offensive line competition, he knew Prevot hadn't wondered over to his position group by accident. Prevot was indeed the best defensive linemen at the camp.

As for the competition with Raulerson, it might have been deemed a draw, but Prevot understands that the competition will propel his recruiting.

"Who won?" Raulerson yelled out loud.

A few people from the crowd yelled that he had won, but Prevot wasn't buying it.

"Offensive linemen always say that they won," he said. "I won. I definitely won."

Whoever won is up for debate, but there is no debating Prevot's place at the top of the defensive linemen's performance chart.

"A lot of people look at me as a nobody, I guess because I am so small," Prevot said. "I wanted to come out here and prove that I'm no joke."

He's definitely not that and proved as much after making a joke of some of his competition.

Read more from William Wilkerson's story here.

Max Olson caught up with several of the recruits at the event. Those top prospects gave updates on where they are in the process and a few favorites. Click here for all the news.

More from the Dallas NFTC:

• Chatmon: Secondary player star in Dallas

• Photo gallery

AUSTIN, Texas -- Mack Brown fancies himself a big college basketball fan.

Tourney time, a.k.a. March, is welcomed in the Brown household, which tunes in to the men's and women's tourneys alike.

When his Texas football players watch the 67-game, three-week marathon, too, he wants to make sure they carry a certain lesson into the fall.

"We're putting a tremendous amount of emphasis on who is out there every day, who is consistent every day, who gets ready to practice every day and who is excited about playing every day," Brown said. "We've tried to make some analogies to the NCAA tournament. It is one and done. That's why I like it so much. If you go flat, you don't get it back."

Texas hasn't been anything resembling a title contender, going 13-12 in the past two seasons. But with a team full of promising freshmen, those days of 10-win seasons and beyond could be just around the corner.

With a team full of freshmen that won eight games in 2011, Brown wants his team to use the hard times of others to avoid big losses in Austin.

"Kids can be flat for a big game. I've seen it. And we all think it can't happen. It can happen," Brown said. "But when they sit there and watch Lehigh beat Duke, and they sit there and watch Norfolk State beat Missouri and Norfolk State lose by 40 points to Florida the next game, it's not about the best teams anymore. Everybody's got talent. It's about who plays the best on that day."

Call it a trite sentiment, but it's true. Lose one game in college football and your postseason fate leaves for the hands of others. College basketball is only win-or-go-home for three weeks. Football embodies that idea for three months.

"That's the attitude we're trying to get to this team. You can't be a great team and have a bad day," Brown said. "If you are, you're probably going to get beat."

Dallas Skyline QB Devante Kincade was named the MVP of the Dallas Elite 11 camp and earned the first invitation to the finals.

For Texas fans, all eyes were on Tyrone Swoopes. The Whitewright, Texas, product started slowly and showed how raw of a player he is. He also showed that he can be coached into a phenomenal player.

From Elite 11 coach Yogi Roth:

"You just want to mold it, put your hands on it and build him into the dominant player that he can be."

Swoopes used that coaching and advice he got from Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo to bounce back and work his way to the top group.

Swoopes appeared to take that to heart and quickly moved over to the first group after a few throws to route-running receivers.

That performance helped Swoopes become one of six quarterbacks to compete in the final drill of the camp, a two-minute drill that featured an assortment of short, intermediate and long throws as the player made his way down the field with Roth counting down the game's final seconds.

"What we saw in the two-minute drill is that his mind can play as fast as his athletic ability," Roth said. "He's never dropped back in his life. All of a sudden he's dropping back, I'm screaming at him and he played really poised. I was really proud of him."

Read more from William Wilkerson's story here.

Swoopes and J.T. Barrett (Wichita Falls, Texas/Rider) did eventually earn their golden tickets to the Elite 11 finals in Redondo Beach, Calif., in July by their performance in Sunday's NFTC.

More from the Dallas Elite 11:

• Tom Luginbill recaps the action

• Several QBs made long trips to Dallas and made the trip worth it with impressive performances.

• Photo gallery

AUSTIN, Texas -- David Ash has taken to the habit of carrying the football everywhere with him.

Well, just about everywhere.

“Not to church,” the Texas quarterback said.

Hold up. Isn’t football a religion in Texas? That pigskin should be on the pew.
Then again, it’s hard to flip the pages and hold the hymnal with one hand on the laces. So maybe he earns a pass in that circumstance.

But for those who kneel at the altar of Texas football, it might be a wise thing to start throwing a few prayers toward the heavens that Ash has learned a few things from all this football toting about keeping it secure. After all, it was his inability to do so that brought down a little fire and brimstone on the Longhorns in 2011.

There were two drive killers against Oklahoma State (one interception and one fumble). Then there were two more interceptions thrown against Kansas State. Both were games that could have been won had it not been for the four turnovers that lead to 17 points. Two of the turnovers killed drives inside the opponents’ 40. Another was inside Texas’ 20.

“If you look at last year, the eight games we won, we won the turnover battle,” Ash said.

Ash, at least, has been enlightened to that little fact. Truth be told, several lights have come on for Ash since throwing six interceptions before his first touchdown in 2011.

“It was just going back and getting a realistic approach to some of those scenarios and games that weren't good,” co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin said. “What was bad about it? Well, maybe it was footwork, or mechanics or you were late. That's really what it is.

“It started to make more sense. He started to feel more comfortable with what we were doing. That's really it. He's taken the next step in his preparation before we got into spring practice of studying the system and having a better understanding of the expectations for these plays and in these situations.”

Those steps, at least many of them, are usually taken away from the glare of DKR at practice, during a redshirt season.

“Having that grace period of a redshirt, it’s very valuable and that would have helped me a lot in developing,” Ash said. “But in the situation we were in last year that was impossible.

“Every quarterback that has a chance to redshirt should."

Instead, Ash was red-faced in anger for his inability to do what he had always done -- lead a team, display his arm and make intelligent, strong throws. What he wasn’t angry at was the scrutiny or the critics. While maybe he didn’t welcome their comments, he at least understood them.

“I think it makes you better as a player,” Ash said. “Going through that, it makes you stronger.”

Which is where Ash is now.

“What I have seen from David, and really everybody on our offense, is a heightened sense of confidence in terms of knowing what we're doing,” defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said.

“You can just see, last spring it was all new. And then you're getting to two-a-days and it's review. Then you go to the season and again, you don't want to play during the season and do on-the-job training, but with the new schemes it was a little bit of what we were doing.”

Now Ash has been able to exhale, absorb and rebuild himself into the confident football player he had once been. And, maybe more importantly, Ash has started to understand that, to be successful at Texas, he has to be himself.

“You come in, there is an expectation of a UT quarterback, you’ve got to be a Vince Young or a Colt McCoy,” Ash said. “But you don’t have to be that. The biggest thing I learned is be yourself.”

1. Going camping: More than 700 players participated in the Nike Football Training Camp in Dallas on Sunday. Of those 700, six Longhorns commits – Jake Oliver, Durham Smythe, Jake Raulerson, Daeshon Hall, A’Shawn Robinson and Jacorey Warrick – took part.

Of course, there were Texas targets among that swarm of young football players. It’s events like these that let the prospects show off a little bit and in Texas’ case, let’s the player come together as a group. And maybe recruit a few kids who have yet to decide.

It might not be a deciding factor, but seeing such a large group of future UT players together and competing can have an impact. It’s certainly an invaluable tool for coaches who can’t recruit at these events.

2. Baseball is getting better: Texas took the weekend series from Kansas State with a 8-5 win on Sunday. The Longhorns are now 5-1 in conference play, and it appears that the bats have awoken. Texas has scored seven or more runs in five of its last seven games.

As they have rounded into some form, the Longhorns will get a visit this weekend from the Cal Bears. Cal has started 1-5 in Pac-12 play, but were a College World Series team last year. This is a good out-of-conference meeting for Texas. The Longhorns will host Cal at the Dell Diamond, the home of the Round Rock Express. It will break up the conference schedule and let Texas see what it has against a team from another conference.

3. Speeding through town: The Texas Relays start this week and a total of 51 Longhorns will participate. The event, which has been held since 1925, welcomes many of the nation’s best track and field athletes from all sizes of colleges and also from Texas high schools.

According to the Austin Visitor’s Bureau, the event has become a social function as well and could bring in around $8 million to local businesses. So, too weeks after SXSW took over and flooded Austin with hipsters and the tech-savvy, the college track world arrives.

The Texas Longhorns will be without Quandre Diggs for the remainder of spring practice after the sophomore cornerback sustained a wrist injury.

The injury required surgery which was successfully performed Saturday, according to a university release.

Head athletic trainer for football Kenny Boyd expects Diggs to make a full recovery and be ready in time for the season.

Diggs started 11 games in 2011 and played in all 13. He was named Big 12 Defensive Freshman of Year after recording 51 tackles and a team-high four interceptions.

DALLAS -- The Dallas Elite 11 is Saturday at 4 p.m. CT. Join our team of scouts and writers who will provide updates, news and notes throughout the event.