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It's easy to understand why a projected starter in senior RT Denzel Okafor would cause a kerruffle on Orangebloods when it broke that he'd added his name to the NCAA transfer portal.
On one hand, it's a projected starter on offense -- and a projected starter within a unit that had, all of a sudden in the spring of 2020, looked more depleted than many had envisioned given the losses of Zach Shackelford and Parker Braun who were both underappreciated assets as seniors in 2019. On the other, Okafor hasn't really been THAT good thus far at Texas.
He took a redshirt season midway through college in 2018 to work on his game and, instead of coming out of that thing blazing with improvement, he remained a half-time player in 2019, albeit somewhat improved. The signs have been there numerous times that the light might not be coming on the way many had hoped, though.
With this said, Okafor is still a known quantity who, without a doubt or any hesitation, I can say has performed at least serviceably on numerous occasions when called upon.
WHAT THIS MEANS: The right tackle position is now up for grabs, that is, unless Derek Kerstetter (a senior who has played mostly tackle but has been groomed to take the reins at center for 2020) gets kicked back outside. Let's talk about what happens outside of a projected move of Kerstetter from center to RT:
We have Sam Cosmi at LT, a nebulous and now more scary situation at LG, Kerstetter at center, Junior Angilau at RG and ... what at right tackle?
Christian Jones? The sophomore is big and beastly but he's looked like he's not ready when we've seen him in live action, be that spring game last year or in practices open to the media this fall. He only played 11 snaps in 2019 and still managed to give up a QB hit. Betting on Jones being ready is betting on the come.
Reese Moore? Another promising sophomore who is definitely not ready to play starting snaps barring radically unforeseen physical development, and who probably needs to be considered LT only given his skill set and physical attributes. He did not play in 2019 outside of the bowl game in which he was pulled after only two snaps once the backups came in for giving up an egregious run-stuff.
Tyler Johnson? That could be our answer. He's the highest-upside athlete among all young linemen in the program and is the type of player who no one would have been surprised, coming out of high school, if they would have been told he'd be a starter by his redshirt freshman season.
WHAT IF KERSTETTER BUMPS OUT TO RT?: Then we likely have sophomore Rafiti Ghirmai starting at center which means a guy who committed one penalty and allowed 1 QB pressure on all of 16 snaps in the 2019 regular season as the unit's signal caller and fireplug. The wildest of wildcards could be true freshman Jake Majors. Heck, Zach Shackelford and Kerstetter both started from Day 1 of their respective careers in somewhat dire OL situations ... and ... well, here we are again ...
The butterfly flaps its wings with this move and now we don't have Ghirmai battling with a largely unappealing senior in Tope Imade to start at LG given his promotion at center. In the event that Kerstetter does play RT, though, it means that Tyler Johnson, who has positional versatility, will then be in the cat bird's seat to push Imade at LG, and we have every reason to believe the staff wants Imade to see pushed -- and hard -- coming into the 2020 season.
BOTTOM LINE: Denzel Okafor, if gone, will be remembered as a player who did not live up to his potential at Texas. However, he was slated to be a steady if underwhelming part of a group in which he'd be the fourth-best player on the line until proven otherwise. He at least brought a level of stability and experience to where we'd know he'd been serviceable at many times before.
We now have to bring Tyler Johnson squarely into focus. The reason being, he's looking to be in play to push to start now at two positions -- the guard position that Angilau doesn't occupy as well as right tackle. Of course we also will want to monitor Christian Jones closely. In the most perfect of worlds, Jones will have developed to the point where he can start at right tackle and Tyler Johnson will beat out Tope Imade at LG. At that point, Kerstetter becomes Christian Jones insurance at the tackle and we wouldn't have to see Ghirmai as the starter unless things went haywire over on the far edges of the line of scrimmage due to Jones' limitations as a young player still finding his game.
But we're talking about a lot of different scenarios and a lot of plates spinning in the air as we go through them. Herb Hand has his work cut out for him and we have one hell of a summer football camp coming up to see how this deal gets handled.
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
It's easy to understand why a projected starter in senior RT Denzel Okafor would cause a kerruffle on Orangebloods when it broke that he'd added his name to the NCAA transfer portal.
On one hand, it's a projected starter on offense -- and a projected starter within a unit that had, all of a sudden in the spring of 2020, looked more depleted than many had envisioned given the losses of Zach Shackelford and Parker Braun who were both underappreciated assets as seniors in 2019. On the other, Okafor hasn't really been THAT good thus far at Texas.
He took a redshirt season midway through college in 2018 to work on his game and, instead of coming out of that thing blazing with improvement, he remained a half-time player in 2019, albeit somewhat improved. The signs have been there numerous times that the light might not be coming on the way many had hoped, though.
With this said, Okafor is still a known quantity who, without a doubt or any hesitation, I can say has performed at least serviceably on numerous occasions when called upon.
WHAT THIS MEANS: The right tackle position is now up for grabs, that is, unless Derek Kerstetter (a senior who has played mostly tackle but has been groomed to take the reins at center for 2020) gets kicked back outside. Let's talk about what happens outside of a projected move of Kerstetter from center to RT:
We have Sam Cosmi at LT, a nebulous and now more scary situation at LG, Kerstetter at center, Junior Angilau at RG and ... what at right tackle?
Christian Jones? The sophomore is big and beastly but he's looked like he's not ready when we've seen him in live action, be that spring game last year or in practices open to the media this fall. He only played 11 snaps in 2019 and still managed to give up a QB hit. Betting on Jones being ready is betting on the come.
Reese Moore? Another promising sophomore who is definitely not ready to play starting snaps barring radically unforeseen physical development, and who probably needs to be considered LT only given his skill set and physical attributes. He did not play in 2019 outside of the bowl game in which he was pulled after only two snaps once the backups came in for giving up an egregious run-stuff.
Tyler Johnson? That could be our answer. He's the highest-upside athlete among all young linemen in the program and is the type of player who no one would have been surprised, coming out of high school, if they would have been told he'd be a starter by his redshirt freshman season.
WHAT IF KERSTETTER BUMPS OUT TO RT?: Then we likely have sophomore Rafiti Ghirmai starting at center which means a guy who committed one penalty and allowed 1 QB pressure on all of 16 snaps in the 2019 regular season as the unit's signal caller and fireplug. The wildest of wildcards could be true freshman Jake Majors. Heck, Zach Shackelford and Kerstetter both started from Day 1 of their respective careers in somewhat dire OL situations ... and ... well, here we are again ...
The butterfly flaps its wings with this move and now we don't have Ghirmai battling with a largely unappealing senior in Tope Imade to start at LG given his promotion at center. In the event that Kerstetter does play RT, though, it means that Tyler Johnson, who has positional versatility, will then be in the cat bird's seat to push Imade at LG, and we have every reason to believe the staff wants Imade to see pushed -- and hard -- coming into the 2020 season.
BOTTOM LINE: Denzel Okafor, if gone, will be remembered as a player who did not live up to his potential at Texas. However, he was slated to be a steady if underwhelming part of a group in which he'd be the fourth-best player on the line until proven otherwise. He at least brought a level of stability and experience to where we'd know he'd been serviceable at many times before.
We now have to bring Tyler Johnson squarely into focus. The reason being, he's looking to be in play to push to start now at two positions -- the guard position that Angilau doesn't occupy as well as right tackle. Of course we also will want to monitor Christian Jones closely. In the most perfect of worlds, Jones will have developed to the point where he can start at right tackle and Tyler Johnson will beat out Tope Imade at LG. At that point, Kerstetter becomes Christian Jones insurance at the tackle and we wouldn't have to see Ghirmai as the starter unless things went haywire over on the far edges of the line of scrimmage due to Jones' limitations as a young player still finding his game.
But we're talking about a lot of different scenarios and a lot of plates spinning in the air as we go through them. Herb Hand has his work cut out for him and we have one hell of a summer football camp coming up to see how this deal gets handled.
