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(From Anwar)
Let us get to the most important news first.
- Texas offensive lineman Patrick Hudson and running back Kyle Porter were back at practice on Thursday. Porter participated in the team and individual portion of practice. Porter did not show any side effects from his ankle injury. He looked the same during practice, and from what I could tell, he did not have any restrictions.
Meanwhile, Hudson had his shoulder pads on, but stood on the sidelines with his helmet during practice. Typically, Hudson works with trainers during practice, but it appears he is getting closer to seeing the field soon.
In addition, defensive lineman Chris Nelson wore a green non-contact jersey during practice.
- The one thing that stood out most during practice was seeing Herb Hand get in everybody’s ass when the first-team offense faced Texas’ second-team defense.
From the sidelines, it was sometimes hard to tell who Hand was screaming at. That being said, he was fired up at his offensive line at times, the defense, and anybody who was not following his instructions. You could tell Hand has the mentality of most offensive coaches who are not opposed to getting on their players if necessary.
At one point, Hand was screaming at his offensive lineman, and he was right next to receiver Brennan Eagles, who was caught in the crossfire. Eagles started to restrain Hand, but quickly let the coach go and do this thing.
- The development of Charles Omenihu has been a great offseason story for Texas.
Omenihu looks like a future NFL pick during practice. He has the size and weight. More importantly, it appears Omenihu is beginning to put it all together.
During one-on-one drills against J.P. Urquidez, Omenihu’s strength was on full display. Omenihu tossed Urquidez to the ground with ease and got into the backfield. He is starting to look the part of a potential impact player.
In addition, Ta’Quon Graham easily beat the offensive lineman he was matched up against. That play occurred as media members were near the gate and walking out of practice. Graham definitely looks like a guy is living up to the hype from his teammates and coaches.
- There were three new signs up at the practice field on Thursday. The word “finish” was in both end zones, while “develop was hanging near the 50-yard line.
- Thursday’s practice was definitely one of the warmer ones this spring. It was 85 degrees outside during practice, with a slight breeze. You could tell this was one of those practices Texas football coach Tom Herman loves because he gets to see how his guys react in different situations. From the part of practice we were allowed to watch, the heat did not have a major impact on the players.
- Texas defensive back Kobe Boyce was participating in a shuffle and break drill through two chutes when he hit his head on the second one. Longhorns cornerbacks coach Jason Washington made Boyce do the drill again because his defensive back did not stay low. During Boyce’s second attempt, he nailed it.
- One guy Washington praised heavily during chute drills was Chase Moore. He had great footwork, and Washington was very pleased.
- During a tackling drill with cornerbacks, Boyce had to attack Kris Boyd. This was not a full-contact drill, but teaching players where the strike zone was, and how to properly execute a takedown. As soon as Boyce made contact with Boyd, the senior instantly told the freshman he needed to get low. Washington said the exact same thing. It was a great display of Boyd’s leadership.
- Texas running backs coach Stan Drayton works his guys on the sidelines, and the most impressive thing I saw was a great-stiff arm by Toneil Carter. Drayton did not want to his guys to break stride, and praised Carter for creating distance between him and the defender.
- Longhorn receiver Collin Johnson made one dynamic catch after another. Most of those catches were against air, but no matter where each quarterback threw the ball, Johnson went up and grabbed the ball and kept his feet inbounds.
- Speaking of footwork, Sam Ehlinger and Shane Buechele showed a lot of great footwork during quarterback keeper drills. Each quarterback got up the field quickly without any hesitation. Both quarterbacks displayed pretty good speed during that portion of practice.
- There was no music played at practice on Thursday. The hip-hop music was blasting on Tuesday, but Herman likes to mix things up. This was one of those days.
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(From Alex Dunlap)
Here are a few notes from the open media-availability portion of Thursday's football practice:
- Shorts and shoulder pads practice, less contact of course, but we still got to see some competitive and physical reps.
- It was a lightly attended practice outside of players and staff. The only notable visitor was again Colt McCoy. CB Eric Cuffee's dad was also in attendance. Pretty light day for program visitors. Another lighter note from an atmosphere-perspective were new signs up on the scoreboards and period boards reading "Finish" and "Develop."
- DB Caden Sterns is going to find his way onto the field regardless of whether or not his role as a "starter" - at least in the lightning sub-package - goes away once PJ Locke returns from stinger injury (which I'm not sure will even be the case). Sterns already looks like one of the best punt-team gunners on the roster.
- A big note here. Speaking of the starting DBs, the youth movement continues as FR CB Anthony Cook took over starting duties Thursday in place of the injured Davante Davis opposite Kris Boyd. In the "lightning" dime-package, that meant the secondary personnel was Cook and Boyd at the corners, Brandon Jones and Caden Sterns at the safeties, Chris Brown at the nickel and John Bonney as the joker box-safety.
- One more note on Anthony Cook: I was lukewarm on his Army All-American practice reps, but he's a guy who's taken exceptionally well to college coaching. He was running with Kris Boyd in the backpedal-chute t-step drills and he was moving just as quickly through the chute as Boyd was. I noticed on one rep he lost his footing before getting into his t-step so DBs coach Jason Washington took him aside for some advice and had him re-run the drill, which Cook executed to perfection. Little by little, Cook's crazy-high prospect pedigree is coming into focus on the college practice field.
- Another interesting and definitely big note to watch: WR Lil'Jordan Humphrey has seemingly moved from the No. 2 X WR to taking starting reps in the slot. This means a starting unit of Collin Johnson, Lil'Jordan Humphrey and Devin Duvernay. That's dirty. If the staff can just get Andrew Beck off the field when he's split out wide in "4 WR" personnel and replace him with Jerrod Heard, then we'll be cooking with peanut oil. Regardless, seeing LJH and Johnson on the field next to one another feels very sick. It's like the twin towers in deciding which one you want to deal with and then you also have Devin to take the top off the defense from the Z position.
- Speaking of WRs, RS FR Jordan Pouncey returned to practice on Thursday. Pouncey had been having a terrific spring before suffering his recent setback. The WR room is the best it has been at Texas in the last decade and maybe more. It's time to get some production from it.
- As for the offensive line, a few notes: 1) SO OG Patrick Hudson wasn't really "back" today from his 2017 injury as hoped for by Tom Herman, although he was kinda back. He was out with the team for much longer than he normally has been, but did not fill in, even with the second-group, during 3/4 speed team drills. There's no way he'll play in the spring game but barring setbacks this means he'll be rearing to go come summer; and 2) Another day, another set of reps with Derek Kerstetter at center with the twos. It's now official that Kerstetter is being cross-trained, meaning there are now at least three players with C/OG versatility between him, Zach Shackelford and Elijah Rodriguez.
- ... and Zach Shackelford had a tough practice himself. It was a new 1v1 drill today that I hadn't ever seen before, and once again, OL coach Herb Hand seems to have picked his drills based on things I complained about last season. He's the best OL coach I've seen at Texas. Today, it was OL vs. DL outside-zone solo-base reach-block technique versus upfield DL penetration. It was clear that the goal of the period for the offense was to generate movement off the line of scrimmage at an outside-zone angle, reach to the defender's outside half, and either drive him off his spot at the outside-zone angle and if not, at least get the inside hand into the inside armpit of the defender and run him off laterally. The goal of the defense was to penetrate upfield against the solo-base assignment and screw up the zone lane. If I was running practice, I would call it the Zach Shackelford drill as it's the one I'd want to run with him over and over based on what we've seen on tape over the last two seasons.
- So, finally, here is a list of notes I took versus this 1v1 period:
LT Denzel Okafor beats DL Ta'Quon Graham but was pretty 'grabby' in the process; it bordered on being too close to holding
LG Patrick Vahe beats Graham but also was a little bits handsy himslef and was told to keep his paws inside by Herb Hand. Graham isn't easy to handle
DL Jamari Chisolm easily whoops Vahe who didn't keep his feet and went to the ground
Chisolm barely beats C Zach Shackelford because it was a stalemate where Shack couldn't generate even a half a yard of movement off the line
Chisolm whoops Shack's ass as Shackelford does what he does in his worst moments in outside zone, letting the defender earhole him and move him backwards
On the next rep, DL D'Andre Christmas did the same thing to Shack and Herb Hand grabbed Shackelford and called for a "NEW CENTER!!!"
Christmas beats Rodriguez
DL Gerald Wilbon beats Rodriguez
Rodriguez beats Wilbon by generating a little bit of movement at his angle of the line
DE Breckyn Hager wins versus RT Derek Kerstetter, Hager's upfield explosion is too much for Kerstetter to handle while engaged and moving laterally
Hager beats Kerstetter again
DE Marquez Bimage beats Kerstetter in ways very similar to Hager (and as an aside, I was standing right behind these drills and couldn't believe how much Bimage has developed through his lower body. He already has as thick a lower body as Naashon Hughes did as a senior).
Chisolm beats OT JP Urquidez
DE Charles Omenihu rag-dolls and tosses aside Urquidez
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(From Suchomel)
The most interesting story lines we’ll be tracking this weekend just might be the fact that two of Texas’ top recruiting targets will be visiting the Longhorns’ only competition for each guy.
Fort Worth Nolan Catholic linebacker NaNa Osafo-Mensah officially narrowed his list down to Texas and Notre Dame on Thursday, the day before he’ll head to South Bend for his N.D. official visit. He’ll take his Texas official visit on May 4 before announcing a decision on May 19.
Notre Dame had been long-believed to be the leader in this one, but as expected, Texas really surged with an unofficial visit from Osafo-Mensah a couple weeks ago. I expect the Irish will make a strong impression of their own this weekend, but Texas getting the last visit is a good sign for the Longhorns.
My money’s squarely on Texas here and even one Notre Dame source I communicated with this week said heading into this weekend’s visit, he “definitely” think Texas is the team to beat.
"(Texas is) a school that is really good from an athletics point of view, but they also provide academic standards," Osafo-Mensah said this week. "They have one of the top business schools in the nation. Me looking into possibly getting an MBA in management, that sticks out to me about Texas because of the business school they have there. (Four-star wide receiver) Jordan Whittington, he’s already committed there and he’s been talking to me a lot about it and some other players that have been thinking about it too."
Osafo-Mensah said his final choice will be the school he feels he’ll enjoy the most if you take football out of the equation. Both Notre Dame and Texas obviously have a lot to sell, but the draw of playing with other recruits with whom he has connected could help tip the scales in UT’s favor.
"After I put myself in the eyes and shoes of what it’s like to be student-athlete at the school, the biggest question I have for myself is what school do I know I can go to, that if football was to come to an end for me, I would still be able to enjoy my four or however many years at that university?," Osafo-Mensah said.
Again, the recent visit to Texas really moved the needle in the Longhorns’ direction and getting him back for an official visit a couple weeks before he announces his decision should be another overwhelmingly positive development for Texas.
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Lake Travis wide receiver Garrett Wilson will take his official visit to Ohio State this weekend and then follow it up next weekend with an official visit to Texas. As of Thursday afternoon, Wilson tells me he doesn’t have a firm date for a decision but he thinks it will come the weekend after his Texas visit.
This one had the feel that it was strongly trending UT’s way until Wilson took an unofficial visit to Ohio State a couple weeks ago. Now, it’s anyone’s guess, and Wilson will get the red-carpet treatment from OSU again this weekend, which will almost certainly include the same sales pitch that Noah Cain is receiving, where a bunch of Texas will try to sell him on how great it is to be a Buckeye.
Like Osafo-Mensah, Texas getting the last visit is a positive for the Longhorns and I expect the UT staff to pull out all the stops on this one (more on that in a bit). Wilson’s a terrific prospect but if Texas can land him, he’s also the type of player that could really help UT’s recruiting efforts in the coming months.
We’ll keep our finger on the pulse of this one to see what the vibe is coming out of the Ohio State visit.
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I mentioned a couple weeks ago after seeing Camden (AR) Fairview offensive lineman Stacey Wilkins at a Rivals camp that I was hearing that Arkansas wasn’t much of a factor. Wilkins, who visited UT for a junior day in February, confirmed that last week when he didn’t even list the Razorbacks while discussing his favorites.
“Right now, Oklahoma, Texas, TCU, Texas A&M is in there and then Georgia,” Wilkins said of the schools standing out.
Wilkins will take unofficial visits to Oklahoma and Alabama over the next two weekends and he said he’s planning to visit Georgia, A&M and Florida as well. He does want to get back to Texas for another visit, but it sounds like other visits will come first so UT will need to continue to work on him.
“I want to get my other visits out of the way. I talked to coach Herman the other day and told him I’m going to get back up there,” Wilkins said.
The 6-7, 285-pound Wilkins said again this week that he likes the entire package that Texas has to offer, from football to academics to life after football to the Polynesian connection Texas is trying to build. He also has a lot of respect for new OL coach Herb Hand.
“He’s probably one of the top offensive line coaches in the country,” Wilkins said. “That’s why I talk to him and text him every day because he’s a really good coach and knows what he’s doing.”
Texas should get Wilkins back in for an official visit and the Longhorns will factor heavily into this one, but Texas is facing some stiff competition.
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A quick update on Oklahoma City Millwood wide receiver Demariyon Houston, who we touched on after he and teammate Marcus Major (RB) visited UT a few weeks ago.
Houston described the UT visit as “great” and “amazing” this week, and said he’s going to set up a UT official visit for either this spring or the fall.
“Texas is a great school. What stood out is the way they talked academics, and being a father and a husband. They didn’t really talk that much about football” Houston said.
I’ve mentioned it before, but both Houston and Major were very impressed with their UT visit, and they want to play together in college. If Texas pushes here, the Longhorns will have a solid chance to land both, especially since neither OU or Oklahoma State has offered both players.
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2020 Oak Grove (LA) defensive tackle Kenean Caldwell has seen his stock rise a bit in recent weeks, with offers from Ole Miss and Texas A&M. Last weekend, he was one of the unofficial visitors Texas hosted and Caldwell said he liked what he saw at UT’s scrimmage.
“What stood out to me was watching them practice, how they practice, how the coaches are - the intensity, the atmosphere of how they do things,” Caldwell said.
Texas didn’t offer and told him it likes to take things a little more slowly than others, but the UT staff did tell Caldwell it was interested and would be keeping an eye on him. Even without an offer, Texas made a strong impression.
“They fit right at the top of my list. I’d say like top three on my list,” Caldwell said.
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There’s been a lot of talk over the last month or so that Texas A&M commitment Demani Richardson still had a strong interest in Texas and would wind up on UT’s campus at some point this spring. Richardson doesn’t say much publicly, so it’s hard to really tell what he’s been thinking, but a couple weeks ago I was told that A&M felt really good about its chances of hanging onto him. That info came from an A&M source, so I took it with a bit of a grain of salt, but it turns out it was spot on.
Richardson was rather lukewarm about his interest in Texas last week when we were able to get some comments from him at the Under Armour Camp in Dallas.
“It’s still kind of going, but not really,” Richardson said of the Texas interest.
Richardson did say a future Texas visit could “maybe” happen, but he doesn’t have anything set up at this time. The Texas coaches have asked him to not shut the door completely and come give them a first-hand look.
“They just want me to keep my eye out for them because I haven’t visited down there. They want me to visit so I can come there and see for myself,” Richardson said.
Could happen, but right now this one has definitely solidified for A&M.
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(From McComas)
Although the first live evaluation period begins next Friday, it would be a surprise if Shaka Smart hires a new assistant coach by then. Per a source, Smart isn’t expected to rush the hire, and, unsurprisingly, wants to take some time evaluating options. And if Texas chooses to, it could elevate someone temporarily to go on the road evaluating during the live periods. For example, Texas could choose to put Director of Basketball Operations Cody Hatt on the road until a new assistant coach is hired.
This is an opportunity for Smart to take a close look at his staff and its strengths and weaknesses, how he wants to construct it moving forward, and an opportunity to perhaps add some more Texas ties in addition to Jai Lucas. (McComas)
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Friday afternoon, the Longhorns will conduct an in-home visit with 2019 five-star guard Tyrese Maxey (South Garland). The nation’s No. 12 prospect, who has visited Texas in the past, is also expected to host Michigan State, Michigan, and Kentucky. Here’s the wrinkle: there’s buzz building that Maxey is contemplating a move into the 2018 class. And although Kentucky sounds like the leader and is pushing for the move, despite Ashton Hagans’s likely move into the 2018 class to make the Kentucky backcourt even more crowded than it already is, the Longhorns are in the picture, and have a shot.
If Maxey does decide to move into the 2018 class, Texas has a lot of playing time to offer, and an ideal spot playing alongside point guard Matt Coleman. Meanwhile, Kentucky would have Immanuel Quickley, Quade Green, Hagans, Tyler Herro, Keldon Johnson, and Jemarl Baker all competing for minutes at guard. Although Hamidou Diallo is expected to turn pro, it’s not a lock, and he too could be in the guard mix. That’s a lot of guards, but it hasn’t stopped John Calipari before.
After this round of in-home visits, it’ll be worth following the conversation that emerges. (McComas)
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Albany graduate transfer Joe Cremo has a final five of Creighton, Oregon, Gonzaga, Penn State, and Texas, he confirmed to OB today. Cremo said the schools are in no order, and the only visit he has locked-in currently is this weekend to Creighton. (McComas)
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Another recruiting tidbit to pass along: the Texas football and basketball coaches have been in communication about recruiting 2019 Lake Travis standout Garrett Wilson. The local product is good enough to play basketball at the high-major level. (McComas)
