After injury, Kerstetter fighting for spot on line
AUSTIN — Unimaginable pain coursed through Derek Kerstetter.
His left ankle had crooked in a horrifically unnatural way. And the left fibula, he’d soon learn, had fractured. The scene was enough to make the Fox broadcast cut to commercial — twice.
Tears streamed down a few faces on the Longhorns’ sideline as doctors tended to the downed Texas captain and offensive lineman. At last, after a solemn pause in this Saturday morning game at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, trainers and doctors fastened Kerstetter into a cart that would deliver him to an ambulance then to a local hospital in Manhattan, Kan.
But on the way out, Kerstetter conjured the strength to lift his right arm and throw up a Hook ’Em. More than reassuring fans, it was a purposeful way of saying, “I’ll be back, just see.”
Eight months after that horrific ankle dislocation and the ensuing surgery, Kerstetter is back on the field. He’s playing for a new head coach (Steve Sarkisian) and learning from a new position coach (Kyle Flood).
But he’s still the same old Derek, a respected team voice and versatile veteran who’s made 37 starts over the past four seasons.
“I’ve been really impressed with Kerstetter,” Sarkisian said Friday night after the team’s first preseason practice. “I think one, obviously from a leadership standpoint. He’s a tremendous leader, probably one of the top leaders on our team. And I think two, you see the experience, right? This guy’s played (college) football. He sees things, he reacts to ’em, he anticipates what’s coming and he trusts his training from a fundamental standpoint.”
Sarkisian and Flood are going to need time to sort out who belongs where along the offensive line, though they’re not starting with a blank slate.
Redshirt freshman Jake Majors looks like he could settle in as Texas’ center for the next few years after closing strong last season. Fourth-year guard Junior Angilau can hold down either guard position after making 24 total starts on both sides over the past two years. And towering junior Christian Jones will try to fill 2021 second-round pick Sam Cosmi’s spot at left tackle.
Kerstetter, a 2017 signee out of Reagan, is among those still battling for positioning on the two-deep depth chart. Freshman Hayden Conner, redshirt freshmen Jaylen Garth and Andrej Karic, sophomores Isaiah Hookfin and Tyler Johnson, senior Tope Imade and Year 6 Denzel Okafor will all spend the next few weeks jockeying for position with Kerstetter right beside them, fighting to regain his spot at right tackle.
“At no point today off the naked eye — now, I gotta watch the tape — did I see any real limitations with him coming off that injury,” Sarkisian said of Kerstetter, who missed all of spring practice. “And I think the value he brings is obviously the leadership, the experience. And obviously, there’s a level of physicality, too; when you know what you’re doing and you’ve got experience, you can be really physical.”
Kerstetter will provide value whether he’s on the field or not.
Ironically, the still-babyfaced fifth-year senior is the offensive line’s graybeard, a seen-it-all sage who’s been on this burnt-orange coaster a long, long time. That sort of presence helps, especially when it’s someone who can help bridge the divide between the players and their new coaching staff.
But Kerstetter hopes to be more than a sideline totem or locker-room mentor. He wants to win a spot among the starters.
And while Sarkisian and Flood won’t unveil a depth chart for several weeks, the revitalized Kerstetter will be right in the mix less than a year after that tragic break in Manhattan.
“In the end it’s finding the right combination of your best five,” Sarkisian said. “That’s really how coach Flood and I view it. And once you can identify your best five, who fits in what spot? And then who’s your sixth, seventh and eighth linemen, and how does that fit?
“There’s some depth in the position. Now we’ve gotta figure out that right combination of making sure we’ve got a solid, really good five. And then that next seven, eight, nine, what does that look like moving forward?
“We’ll find out a lot more about that position in the days to come.”