Alex Longhorns Get Ready for Change

Originally Published: Aug 26, 2009 10:0 PM CDT

Andrew Topps
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

ALEX, Oklahoma -- This will be a year of change for the Alex Longhorns. Head coach Justin Savage returns nine starters but more than half will be playing different positions. Quarterback Wayne Heffington and running back Randy Alexander return to the backfield. Helping them will be a revamped offensive line.

“We’re more complete in our ability to run and pass it,” Savage said. “We’re probably more complete there even though we got a lot of new faces on the line. As the line goes football teams go.”

With just 18 players Heffington and Alexander will double on defense. What the Longhorns lack in size they will make up for with speed.

“Our defense is going to have to rely on selling out on what we see because we’re not a big group up front,” Savage said. “A lot of people can lineup incorrectly and have athletes and get away with it. We’re going to have to be where we’re supposed to be when we’re supposed to be there.”

The Horns won seven straight games to start the 2008 season but were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Now they look to duplicate that hot streak and go deeper into the postseason.

“We may have gained more confidence last year from losing to Fox,” Savage said. “We were down 24-6, came back and tied it, and then made a mistake in the fourth quarter that they were able to capitalize on. I think that adversity of that game probably taught these kids more than winning the seven games.”

Experience is the hardest teacher, it gives tests first and lessons second. This year will tell if the Longhorns learned their lesson.