(Anwar)
* Texas Longhorn players and coaches are wrapping up spring break before returning to work next week. Players are expected to be back on the 40 Acres by Sunday. The first day of spring practice is on Tuesday.
* Spring football practice is when Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff take the reins from strength and conditioning Torre Becton and his crew. The strength and conditioning staff began working with players in January while Sarkisian and his assistants were on the road recruiting.
* Here is a recap of what I wrote at the start of winter conditioning: “The Longhorns will take a different approach this season as compared to previous years. There are a large number of new Longhorns in the program this season. Before this season, players were in the system for two or three years. That made it easier to cut it loose with different lifting and running drills.
“However, the plan is to regress the program's complexity, become good at the foundation of lifting and running, plus teach concepts. Once the foundation is set, you can expect a return to the norm during the summer to prepare for the season.”
* I was told Texas achieved its goal of laying the foundation during winter conditioning. Week after week, Becton, and his crew “kicked everybody’s asses” and the players responded during workouts.
* The biggest challenge this year’s team has faced is becoming a cohesive unit. With so many new faces on the 40 Acres, plus the loss of veteran leaders to the NFL, this year’s team is still learning how to gel. Everyone inside the building is optimistic that growth will occur during spring practice.
* There is a belief inside the building that Becton and his staff do not receive enough credit for their work. Multiple people inside the building question how Duke's director of football sports performance, David Feeley, was named Strength Coach of the Year by FootballScoop.com and Inside the League after Texas sent 11 players to the combine.
* One aspect of the strength and conditioning program many people inside the building are proud of is the reduction of injuries since Sarkisian arrived at Texas. Becton is all about improving players' range of motion, and he had them running hard during winter conditioning. Apart from agility drills, Becton's also big on clean lifts, snatches, and speed lifts.
* However, they do not push heavy weights as much as the previous staff. It seems like Becton's philosophy revolves more around optimizing performance than just brute strength.
--- Former Texas receiver Jordan Whittington struggled to stay healthy for numerous years because he focused on heavy lifting in high school and college. However, this staff eliminated those workouts, and Whittington was able to stay relatively healthy.
A few weeks after leaving the strength and conditioning staff and coaches at Texas, Whittington sustained a hamstring injury while preparing for the NFL Scouting Combine.
*****
(Alex)
* I caught up with a source inside the program this week who said that stud sophomore LB Anthony Hill is moving from will linebacker to mike linebacker. While this sounded odd to me at first, it wasn't so much after hearing the explanation. The staff has always said that they wanted Hill to play linebacker in a way where he can get moved around, used off the edge and in space, etc. and that has been more of the will role for the Texas defense over the last 3 seasons.
* This dichotomy between "mike" and "will" has sorta changed under new co-DC and LBs coach Johnny Nansen, whose mike linebackers don't operate in the same way that we might be used to thinking of the position (downhill thumpers and tackle accumulators). Nansen has reportedly said since getting to meet the players that he wants Anthony Hill to be in the mike role, the one that Jacob Manu played for him at Arizona in 2023. Of course, Manu was the star of a very good Arizona defense last season, and a first-team AP and coaches selection for All Pac-12, leading the conference in tackles (116) while also being second-best on the team in TFLs (9.5) as well as second in sacks (6.5).
* "He's going to move around a lot still," the source said of Hill's role in Nansen's new scheme. "(Manu) is a great player, but physically, he's nowhere near the athlete (that Hill is)," he said. The sentiment is that if an undersized and scrappy player like Manu can be put in position to be so uber-productive in this role, then just imagine what Hill could do, being put in similar situations. David Gbenda will, according to this source, start the spring as the starting will LB. The staff has apparently been happy with Gbenda and he is one of the early leaders on defense.
* I was also told that Nansen has brought a new level of focus to the back-end of the defense and is "doing some new things to get everything on the same page" as far as the DB play and how that phase interacts with the rest of the defense. "We didn't want to lose (former LB coach Jeff Choate)," the person said, "but we kind of needed a guy (like Nansen)." His co-DC title is apparently not in name only as he's integrating a lot of his philosophies across the entire defense already.
*****
(Suchomel)
* Ran into Texas freshman Jordon Johnson-Rubell at last weekend’s Under Armour Camp up in Arlington. The former IMG Academy standout looks ready for spring ball, having added a bunch of lean muscle mass since arriving to Austin in January. Johnson-Rubell actually reported to UT at 191 pounds but the Texas staff broke him down with a lot of lost weight before building him back up with good weight and he’s now weighing in at a well-put-together 193 pounds.
* Got a call this week from a random team source that I haven’t talked to in a while. We were talking about some of the young players in the program, including the freshman class as a whole. This person said the buzz going around the program is that this is the most dialed-in freshman class that some in the program have ever seen. We’ll get our first glimpse of those guys next week when spring ball starts, but the early reviews for the freshmen are extremely encouraging.
* Most of you all read our weekend update on 5-star WR Dakorien Moore. Upcoming visit to Ohio State this week. Spring game visit to Texas is likely. Official visits to LSU, Texas, Oregon and probably Ohio State. Perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of Sunday’s camp as it relates to Moore was that multiple with knowledge of his recruitment indicated they feel Texas has a tremendous shot at flipping him from LSU. In fact, one person felt confident that it would happen.
- Dakorien Moore mentioned to OB repeatedly that he’s big on relationships and trust. LSU wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton (who is now co-OC/WR coach) has done a great job in that area (of note … Hankton almost got the OC job with the Atlanta Falcons in January. Had that happened, a Moore flip would have almost been a certainty).
* Texas is getting a bump in its efforts with Moore due to the re-hiring of Chris Gilbert. “He’s the man, for real,” Moore said of Gilbert. “Man, he built a relationship with my mama before anything. That’s what really matters the most to me. If you can build a relationship with my mama, then I know we can trust you. If she can trust you than I know I can trust you. If the trust is there, the relationship is there and it’s building.”
* Safe to say that bringing back Gilbert elevates UT’s chances? “That means a lot to me, yes sir,” Moore said.
* Denton Ryan offensive lineman Ty Haywood has yet to visit Texas. That should change for the spring game on April 20, if Texas pushes to bring him in. There’s some chatter that UT might have other prospects higher on their board, and Haywood’s answer to his contact with the UT staff might back up that talk. Haywood said he communicates with Kyle Flood on occasion, but his main point of contact has been Mitch Zoloty, an offensive line graduate assistant.
* A potentially big development in the Jordon Davison recruitment took place on Wednesday when it was announced that Ohio State running backs coach Tony Alford was leaving to take the same job at Michigan. We checked around to get the early vibe on the impact of this move and it could really benefit Texas. We were told that prior to Alford’s departure, Ohio State had definitely moved into the lead position. With Alford leaving, Davison will keep an eye on the Buckeyes to see who they hire. He might even take a look at Michigan now. Alabama is still in play here, as is Oregon. A visit to Colorado is expected to happen this spring, so we’ll keep an eye on that one as well.
* Texas QB commitment KJ Lacey will be in Austin on April 6 as part of a large group of recruits scheduled to visit that day. Other schools continue to work on the Saraland (AL) product, but a source this week feels good about UT holding onto him.
“He seems as locked in as you can be, while also being gracious enough to not shut any doors,” we were told.
Hugh Freeze and Auburn aren’t going away. The new Bama staff hasn’t really even recruited him, which is interesting. We’ll probably continue to hear about Lacey talking to (and visiting) other schools because he’s personable, polite and likes watching live college football, but this one looks good right now for the Longhorns to hang on to the talented passer.
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