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2021 Texas spring football thread


Machinator

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51 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Interested about what the Jake Smith and Portal part is about.

 

Spoiler

 

Just as one continuous rumor was finally put to rest this week, the speculation about another topic resurfaced.

Juwan Mitchell was expected to part ways with Texas more times than most Longhorn observers could remember. That is why nobody who follows the program blinked after hearing rumors about Mitchell’s departure recently. It is the same reason why nobody was caught off-guard when Mitchell entered the transfer portal on Wednesday. In fact, nobody who follows the program will be surprised if Mitchell withdrew his name from the transfer portal and returned to Texas.

Before Mitchell entered the transfer portal, there have been whispers – once again – this week about Jake Smith parting ways with Texas after the spring semester.

Smith has dealt with multiple setbacks since joining the Longhorns. He broke his foot on the first day of this year’s spring practice and is expected to miss an undetermined amount of time. Smith also sustained a hamstring injury and missed multiple games last season. Sources who are familiar with Smith said he wants to be close to home, which is Arizona.

However, sourcing close to Smith denies that a potential transfer is in play.

Maybe this rumor will resurface until Smith graduates from Texas. Maybe this will be the last time this rumor circulates.

Regardless, we will keep you posted.

*****

 

(Ketch)

One of the big transfer portal moments of the off-season thus far in the Big 12 occurred last week when West Virginia All-America safety Tykee Smith departed Morgantown.

Rivals.com Transfer Portal extraordinaire Mike Farrell, provided an update on Thursday that indicated that the Longhorns are among the teams that have been in touch with Smith in the last week.

"West Virginia All-American safety Tykee Smith entered the portal last week and things have exploded since. Penn State and Georgia were immediately considered the front-runners because he is from Pennsylvania, and his former position coach at West Virginia, Jahmile Addae, is now coaching for the Bulldogs. Smith has had Zoom meetings with Penn State, Mississippi State and South Carolina already and is setting one up with Auburn. He wants to enroll somewhere in May for summer conditioning. His former teammate at West Virginia, Dreshun Miller, chose Auburn so there is a connection there.

If I had to guess right now the leaders would be Penn State, Georgia and Auburn but barring a surprise this will go on for a bit. Texas, Florida, Washington, NC State, Notre Dame, Indiana, Georgia Tech, UCF and others have also reached out. Texas is especially interesting because the Longhorns mentioned to Smith that they think the NCAA could pass intra-conference transfer allowance without penalty, which is the opposite of what I heard from an SEC source."

A little more background on the interest from the Longhorns:

a. Texas is a factor with Smith, but the concerns about intraconference ineligibility is a major hindrance. Opinions are all over the place about what is going to happen with regards to football and basketball players transferring from a conference rival to another, but it's interesting that Texas coaches reportedly believe there will be a waiver announced at some point. SEC schools are leading the charge to block a waiver that would allow players to transfer within the conference without a one-year timeout.

b. Smith has not yet had a Zoom meeting with Texas. Penn State, Mississippi State, Auburn and South Carolina have held Zoom meetings with Smith.

c. Penn State is the favorite.

(Note: In the same article, Farrell reports that the Longhorns have already touched base with Florida-transfer Jahari Rogers, who went into the Portal this week. We'll work to touch base with Rogers this week).

 

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IT

Spoiler

TEAM

Friday is a long day for the team but practice is already over. The day was spent in helmets and shells for the final “acclimation” practice. Tomorrow they’ll be in pads and we suspect they’ll scrimmage.

Some notes from Thursday (we’ll try to get some Friday notes as well).

— Quarterbacking was was rough on Thursday. Both QBs appeared a little overwhelmed and the defense was just playing really well, including a circus catch INT. There were at least three interceptions thrown by the top two QBs.

— Texas had two big returnees to practice: WRs Joshua Moore and Troy Omeire were out there. Omeire was not full-go but he’s getting closer.

— Jordan Whittington is the best WR early in camp. He consistently gets open, has strong hands, is quick and explosive. The likely top-three when/if everyone is healthy will be Omeire/Whittington/Moore. You can do damage with that.

— Kelvontay Dixon has been running with 1s and he’s quite capable to play in place of Moore if need be. If Sark keeps a tighter rotation, Dixon will probably still figure into snap allocation.

— Offensive linemen Junior Angilau and Andrej Karic are the most consistent up front. Both are aggressive and physical. Karic in particular has a nasty demeanor and talks a lot. He’s also very technical. If things hold, they’re going to have to squint real hard to see Christian Jones as being the superior option at left tackle.

— Josh Thompson and DJamison are the most consistent DB’s in coverage. Darrion Dunn is still adjusting to big-time P5 football. Thompson had acrobatic INT on Thursday.

— Kitan Crawford’s upside was also mentioned. The DBs are a lot better than the WRs so far, but that’s to be expected given the DB’s are healthy and more experienced.

— There are still some guys out due to Covid protocols. D-line was hit hard so they worked on more odd fronts than they have previously.

— Malcolm Epps has been making some plays in the passing game. Brewer too. The staff needs to keep Epps engaged because it’s still not out of the real of possibility that he transfers after he graduates.

 

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12 hours ago, Vito Andolini said:

Schooler is listed as 6’2”, 201 on the university website, but he appears quite a bit bigger than that. 

I can already see people losing their minds when he starts this fall. Barring a major transfer, I would not be uninterested in the idea. 

Speaking of crazy talk, I wouldn't be opposed to Jamison getting some time there. His playmaking ability and instincts could be even better suited (not saying he isn't already a good corner) with everything in front of him playing centerfielder. (See punt returns for proof)

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IT spring practice notes

Spoiler

These stem from Friday.

— Only two players are out due to Covid from our understanding. Around 15 players returned to practice late this week.

— Sark is in the early stages of identifying his team leaders. Yesterday he held a meeting with a sizable group of players the staff (including S&C coach Torre Becton) has been impressed with since January, not just since football practice began. Every position group was represented, and some even had two players selected. E.g., both Casey Thompson and Hudson Card.

— In keeping with his oath of transparency, Sark addressed the team on why Juwan Mitchell wouldn’t be returning. That’s a good way to quell any team chatter, not that there was any in this instance.

— We asked for some negatives and here’s what we heard: The team has impressed the staff with competitive play between whistles but needs to show more overall urgency and pace throughout practice. Stamina appears to be an issue, but these guys are being pushed hard. As you’d expect, the players still have a long way to go on understanding the playbook. That was also mentioned.

— In the Humidor we stated Darion Dunn is still adjusting to big-time football. On Saturday we heard, “He’s a smart player. He jumped a screen pass and almost intercepted it. His athleticism stands out, looks like a stud NFL prospect in that regard.”

— Josh Thompson has been the most consistent corner. He’s also a strong candidate to become a team captain when it’s all said and done.

— Luke Brockermeyer was with the ones at Will on Friday and Jaylan Ford/Marcus Tillman was with the twos. That is Sarkisian living up to what he said and giving everyone a chance to show what they can do. Hopefully he sees some athleticism and goes, “hey, this guy can be an H-back for us.” I was told this had nothing to do with Ford’s level of play. Brockermeyer might have been given a scholarship under Herman, but he was never given a real chance to earn meaningful reps.

— David Gbenda is looking fast at Mike and becoming more comfortable making defensive calls. IT asked about Overshown missing valuable time. He’ll often be calling the defense, “shouldn’t be an issue. No concerns.” File that one away. (The Will does make calls at times too)

— IT asked about Vernon Broughton, “Just needs more coaching and reps. Has to keep his pads down and his feet moving when he’s met with resistance. You don’t win every rep outright with athleticism. Good pass rusher for the interior.”

— IT asked about Jacoby Jones, “He’s not far from being a good player. It’s little things like feet and hands; all stuff that can be fixed.”

— We haven’t heard a negative about how the previous staff developed but we do hear something similar to “little things that can be fixed” pretty frequently.

— Junior Angilau is still impressing. He has the physical attributes in the run game they’re looking for.

— If you had to handicap starters on the OL, you’d have to go with Angilau at one of the guard spots, Jake Majors at center, and Andrej Karic.....somewhere. Karic is the best left tackle in early April.

— The defense is ahead of the offense. This should surprise nobody and will continue into August and maybe all of next year. The depth chart is much more settled and experienced on defense.

 

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14 minutes ago, Machinator said:

IT spring practice notes

  Hide contents

These stem from Friday.

— Only two players are out due to Covid from our understanding. Around 15 players returned to practice late this week.

— Sark is in the early stages of identifying his team leaders. Yesterday he held a meeting with a sizable group of players the staff (including S&C coach Torre Becton) has been impressed with since January, not just since football practice began. Every position group was represented, and some even had two players selected. E.g., both Casey Thompson and Hudson Card.

— In keeping with his oath of transparency, Sark addressed the team on why Juwan Mitchell wouldn’t be returning. That’s a good way to quell any team chatter, not that there was any in this instance.

— We asked for some negatives and here’s what we heard: The team has impressed the staff with competitive play between whistles but needs to show more overall urgency and pace throughout practice. Stamina appears to be an issue, but these guys are being pushed hard. As you’d expect, the players still have a long way to go on understanding the playbook. That was also mentioned.

— In the Humidor we stated Darion Dunn is still adjusting to big-time football. On Saturday we heard, “He’s a smart player. He jumped a screen pass and almost intercepted it. His athleticism stands out, looks like a stud NFL prospect in that regard.”

— Josh Thompson has been the most consistent corner. He’s also a strong candidate to become a team captain when it’s all said and done.

— Luke Brockermeyer was with the ones at Will on Friday and Jaylan Ford/Marcus Tillman was with the twos. That is Sarkisian living up to what he said and giving everyone a chance to show what they can do. Hopefully he sees some athleticism and goes, “hey, this guy can be an H-back for us.” I was told this had nothing to do with Ford’s level of play. Brockermeyer might have been given a scholarship under Herman, but he was never given a real chance to earn meaningful reps.

— David Gbenda is looking fast at Mike and becoming more comfortable making defensive calls. IT asked about Overshown missing valuable time. He’ll often be calling the defense, “shouldn’t be an issue. No concerns.” File that one away. (The Will does make calls at times too)

— IT asked about Vernon Broughton, “Just needs more coaching and reps. Has to keep his pads down and his feet moving when he’s met with resistance. You don’t win every rep outright with athleticism. Good pass rusher for the interior.”

— IT asked about Jacoby Jones, “He’s not far from being a good player. It’s little things like feet and hands; all stuff that can be fixed.”

— We haven’t heard a negative about how the previous staff developed but we do hear something similar to “little things that can be fixed” pretty frequently.

— Junior Angilau is still impressing. He has the physical attributes in the run game they’re looking for.

— If you had to handicap starters on the OL, you’d have to go with Angilau at one of the guard spots, Jake Majors at center, and Andrej Karic.....somewhere. Karic is the best left tackle in early April.

— The defense is ahead of the offense. This should surprise nobody and will continue into August and maybe all of next year. The depth chart is much more settled and experienced on defense.

 

Welcome back Brockermeyer brothers

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1 hour ago, Machinator said:

IT asked about Vernon Broughton, “Just needs more coaching and reps. Has to keep his pads down and his feet moving when he’s met with resistance. You don’t win every rep outright with athleticism. Good pass rusher for the interior.”

Based on his play at the end of last year, he still has a long, long way to go. Hopefully he gets there at some point in his career at UT. 

1 hour ago, Machinator said:

Karic is the best left tackle in early April.

Hopefully the staff doesn’t try to force Jones at LT. Karic should be the guy there unless Jones or Hookfin take huge steps forward between now and the start of the season. 

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11 minutes ago, UTDD said:

I guess Karic is working out -- I remember that a few people were debating him and the other prospect...Lindberg if I remember (went to Georgia).

We wanted both guys but yeah pretty much 

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