Bobby Burton
The Texas football team is headed to the practice field literally as I type this.
This morning will be the 13th of 15 allotted practices this spring. The Horns will practice again on Thursday then finish up with a final practice Saturday morning.
On Saturday, Texas coaches and players will also take part in a fan participation event at the stadium following practice.
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Here are some notes from the spring:
At QB, Arch Manning is the clear no. 1. Trey Owens is the clear no. 2.
Manning has been far from perfect. He’s had his ups and downs. However, the thing that keeps being recounted to us is that he is considered a team leader and he is commanding the offense. If there’s a bad series or a couple of bad plays, and even if it’s on the quarterback, he and the OL are the ones getting guys back together.
Growth as a leader has been a big part of his spring camp. Its Arch’s team now and he’s attempting to live up to that billing.
Tre Wisner remains RB1. That’s unsurprising. But he has “taken another step”, according to Steve Sarkisian. Wisner reminds me so much of Barryn Sorrell and his career trajectory. I get the feeling every 3-6 months when you see Wisner, he’s going to be just a little better than he was previously.
RB2 remains Jerrick Gibson. Gibson, at least thus far, has held off the returning Christian Clark. Freshman James Simon has turned heads at times. Fall camp will be big for Simon to see if he can unseat Gibson or Clark to get into the rotation more.
Parker Livingstone is the talk of camp at receiver. But what about the true freshmen? I am told last Thursday was not a great practice for the group. At least three different deep balls were catchable but went uncorralled. Aaron Butler has been a non-factor. I think the addition of Emmett Mosley V to this group is one of the more underrated moves of the spring portal.
At tight end, Spencer Shannon has been the clear no. 1. Shannon is a strong in-line blocker and considered a very heady player. That being said, the injury to Jordan Washington has exposed a real shortcoming. Emaree Winston has looked good catching the ball and in making some route adjustments on the fly. His physicality is solid for his age, but it’s still not quite where it needs to be for an every down player.
On the OL, the starting five have been the starting five almost all camp. Right tackle Brandon Baker and Andre Cojoe has really been the biggest “battle” of sorts. Cojoe actually rotates in with the 1s every so often, the only OL to actually do so among the group of five. Nate Kibble, Jaydon Chatman, Connor Robertson, Nick Brooks and Cojoe are the second group.
I’ll write up more about the defense after this morning’s C&F.
Hook’Em!