With the loss of RB Chris Warren for what OB first reported is to be a 6-8-week recovery timeline, it has left the RB group thin enough to force the staff to transition true freshman Lil'Jordan Humphrey to the running back position from wide receiver where Humphrey had already seen limited action through the start of his first season at Texas.
Humphrey was reportedly taking reps with the running back group prior to the Oklahoma game, and even entered the game aligned at an RB position at one point in the 18-wheeler package. It was unclear at the time whether this was simply a way to get Humphrey on the field more often in creative ways, or if this was a position change. It appears, at least for this season, that the latter is indeed the case.
"They moved him to running back," one source said and another confirmed on Monday. "He's in the (running backs) room now, he's a running back." Humphrey, labeled an athlete coming into Texas, played quite a bit of running back in high school, but few thought he could at the college level. Humphrey is 6-4 and long, so he has a ton of surface area for defenders to target, but it doesn't appear to bother the coaching staff, and all sources have indicated that LJH has looked impressive with most everything they've tried him in at practice. It's not impossible to play the position at a height close to Humphrey's, after all -- ask Derrick Henry.
The move was necessary as Kirk Johnson is still recovering from re-aggravation of his 2015 knee injury, Kyle Porter is a true freshman viewed as likely incapable of handling even a complementary-plus-role to D'Onta Foreman's lead, and Tristian Houston is thought of by most everyone in the know as a likely eventual transfer candidate.
Seeing Humphrey in extended action at running back during certain contests will certainly be one of the more interesting things to keep an eye on with the Horns, even if the season as a whole appears likely to peter out anticlimactically.
Humphrey was reportedly taking reps with the running back group prior to the Oklahoma game, and even entered the game aligned at an RB position at one point in the 18-wheeler package. It was unclear at the time whether this was simply a way to get Humphrey on the field more often in creative ways, or if this was a position change. It appears, at least for this season, that the latter is indeed the case.
"They moved him to running back," one source said and another confirmed on Monday. "He's in the (running backs) room now, he's a running back." Humphrey, labeled an athlete coming into Texas, played quite a bit of running back in high school, but few thought he could at the college level. Humphrey is 6-4 and long, so he has a ton of surface area for defenders to target, but it doesn't appear to bother the coaching staff, and all sources have indicated that LJH has looked impressive with most everything they've tried him in at practice. It's not impossible to play the position at a height close to Humphrey's, after all -- ask Derrick Henry.
The move was necessary as Kirk Johnson is still recovering from re-aggravation of his 2015 knee injury, Kyle Porter is a true freshman viewed as likely incapable of handling even a complementary-plus-role to D'Onta Foreman's lead, and Tristian Houston is thought of by most everyone in the know as a likely eventual transfer candidate.
Seeing Humphrey in extended action at running back during certain contests will certainly be one of the more interesting things to keep an eye on with the Horns, even if the season as a whole appears likely to peter out anticlimactically.
