Lindale High School quarterback David Lindig is a die-hard Texas Longhorns fan. His father graduated from the university and passed on his love of the burnt orange to David and his brothers. Some of David’s fondest childhood memories are in Darrell K. Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium, screaming, ‘Texas Fight!’ 

So when Lindale hired former Texas quarterback Tyrone Swoopes last summer as a tight ends coach, the coaches expected David to recognize him instantly. Swoopes is 31 years old now, but he still looks like he could throw a jersey on. Except when David first introduced himself, his voice was polite but not awestruck. The lightbulb hadn’t gone off. It’s hard to believe a kid in the Class of 2027, like David, was seven or eight years old during Swoopes’s senior year at Texas in 2016. 

One of the assistant coaches finally nudged him, asking if he knew who Tyrone Swoopes was. David flipped through the memories of triumphant Texas moments in his brain, rewinding from Arch Manning to Quinn Ewers to Sam Ehlinger, before it dawned on him. 

“Oh, you’re the quarterback from the Notre Dame game!” David said.  

The image of Tyrone Swoopes diving over the goal line to seal unranked Texas’s Double OT win against No.10-ranked Notre Dame in the 2016 season opener is forever etched in Longhorn lore. That night, on a standalone Sunday broadcast, the 18-Wheeler package was born. Swoopes, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound truck of a quarterback, ran the ball 13 times for 53 yards and three touchdowns, the last of which prompted the entire Texas sideline to storm the field and ESPN announcer Joe Tessitore to proclaim, “Texas is back, folks.”

It turned out to be premature. Notre Dame turned out to be a paper tiger, finishing 4-8. Texas head coach Charlie Strong was fired at the end of the year after a third consecutive losing season. People have since tried making fun of Tessitore for calling his shot too early. But at that moment, all 100,000 fans in DKR felt the same way. And Swoopes made the iconic play of that cathartic win. 

But what kids like David don’t remember, and YouTube montages of that play can’t capture, is that Swoopes, a senior, actually got benched 20 minutes before kickoff in favor of true freshman Shane Buechele. Four years prior, Swoopes had been that hotshot freshman from Whitewright, Texas, a top-10  quarterback in the country, anointed by Texas fans as the next Vince Young. That dream could’ve officially ended in the locker room before the game. In fact, it would’ve ended if his mind had been wired differently. Instead, it was made. 

“I think everybody comes to a crossroads in a team sport where you have to decide if you’re going to be selfish and wallow in your pity because you didn’t get your way, or if you’re going to do what’s best for the team and still stay locked in for whenever your moment comes,” Swoopes said. “I think that was my crossroads that night.” 

Now, his mission is to get the next generation of athletes, like David, to make the same kind of decision at their crossroads.

For lack of a better term, Swoopes had a weird playing career. He was an All-State senior on a Whitewright team that went 1-9 because it only had 19 kids in the entire program. After a magnificent spring game performance, he figured to redshirt as a freshman behind David Ash and Case McCoy - until head coach Mack Brown threw him onto the field for eight plays at the end of a 30-7 win over TCU and burned it. He was supposed to be the backup as a sophomore, but Ash then retired from football after a concussion in the opening game. He split time as a junior with Jerrod Heard, then was a gadget player as a senior. His last three years are the only time in Texas history the program has had three consecutive losing seasons. 

But amid all that dysfunction, Swoopes, a kid from a town of 1,700 people, still played at the University of Texas, had one of the more iconic plays in program history, and then played multiple years as an NFL tight end. By every measure, his playing career was a success. Just ask the opposing coaches who stop Swoopes and ask for an autograph as the Lindale coaching staff walks the Riverwalk at the THSCA Coaching School.  

“It’s never going to be a straight path,” Swoopes said. “But as long as you stay consistent, working hard and doing the right things, then great things will happen. I ended up getting a chance to play in the NFL at tight end, another position I didn’t ever think I’d play.”

Swoopes had four different offensive coordinators at the University of Texas, which means he learned a new offense every year. Then, in the offseason between his senior season and the NFL Draft, he learned an entirely new position. All that change, the need to learn new steps and new plays every year, confused him at the time. When did football become so hard? But the Lindale coaching staff sees now that it molded him into a football savant. 

“As I’m running our general staff meeting, I noticed very early that the dude was taking notes on absolutely everything that we talked about,” Lindale head coach Chris Cochran said. “I’ll be honest, that changes the room. I remember distinctly thinking, ‘Shoot, this is what an NFL tight end meeting room is like, or the UT quarterback room looks like.’”

But the trials he endured at Texas also allow him to be the calm eye of any storm that the Lindale team goes through on a Friday night. Lindale offensive coordinator Matt Cochran calls plays from the booth, so Swoopes is the first coach David sees when he comes to the sideline. Swoopes is like a human filter for Cochran’s sharp critiques in the heat of battle, because he’s always so cool. He knows what it’s like to be the man in the arena, performing in front of 100,000 pairs of eyes. He also knows what he would’ve liked to hear a coach tell him then. 

“Nothing really gets him worked up,” Matt said. “A lot of times, our quarterback would prefer me not to be on the field, because I’m getting frustrated or mad. He can go to the sidelines and talk to Coach Swoopes, who’s really calm.”

So maybe Swoopes’s football career was a little weird and confusing. He believes it was part of a greater plan to prepare him for this moment. 

“God doesn’t make mistakes,” Swoopes said. “This is something that my wife and I prayed for. We prayed to be in a position like this, with people that truly care, that want to do right by kids, who are great men, first of all, but also great coaches.”