Herman gushes after first practice
AUSTIN — Austin Westlake coach Todd Dodge sauntered away from fields at the Whitaker Sports Complex on Friday morning after taking in the first sizzling day of Texas football practice.
The man who coached Sam Ehlinger through high school was beaming, taking springy strides and glad-handing with media members patiently awaiting the arrival of coach Tom Herman.
The Longhorns’ third-year coach emerged a few minutes later with a similar bounce in his step. Even the torrent of sweat snaking down from Herman’s forehead wasn’t enough to temper his excitement on the first day of practice with a team ranked No. 10 in the preseason coaches poll.
“I woke up before my alarm clock yesterday morning, was just excited to see them and get around them and meet with them,” Herman said Friday morning. “I thought, for a practice one,
the effort level was outstanding. Certainly, missed assignments and poor technique here and there. And we’re OK with that as long as they’re sticking their foot in the ground and running as hard as they can; that’s a successful practice.”
The Longhorns will remain at Whitaker throughout the weekend to practice. They’ll return to Denius Fields on campus and add pads in the coming weeks in preparation for the Aug. 31 season opener against Louisiana Tech at Royal-Memorial Stadium.
This weekend is about moving players from “compliant to committed,” a common refrain over this regime’s first two seasons. Getting that full buy-in, especially after the success of last season, has been easier this time around than in the past.
Still, it’s a process without an end. And Herman expects the remaining holdouts won’t last long, one way or another.
“The few that aren’t, they get exposed by their peers and they’re learning every day on the importance of it,” Herman said Friday. “But the majority of the team is (bought in) and they understand the expectations.
“It’s always ongoing. Culture isn’t static, it’s ever-evolving. There’s no such thing a culturally neutral attitude or action; you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse, helping the culture or hurting it.”
There are other issues to be addressed.
Texas needs to find two “trustworthy” corners to replace Kris Boyd and Davante Davis, last year’s senior starters. Three 2018 signees — Anthony Cook, Jalen Green and D’Shawn Jamison — are the prime candidates. All three were ranked among the nation’s top 15 at the position when they
signed with Texas, per the 247Sports composite.
Cook played in all 14 games last season and made one start. Green appeared in 11 games, contributing mostly on special teams. Jamison spent time as a wideout and punt returner, but his transition back to defense has been smooth.
“The freshman class last year, guys that played and guys that redshirted, they took tremendous strides strength-wise,” senior defensive end Malcolm Roach said last month at Big 12 Media Days in Arlington. “I believe we have the best strength and conditioning coach, and he’s done an amazing job with them. I expect big things out of that class this year.
Said Herman: “They might not have been full-time starters, but we feel very comfortable with the guys who have had quite a bit of experience here.”
The other main focus on defense will be figuring out how to get the “best 11” on the field at the same time. That could mean switching between different packages to get, say, hard-hitting sophomore safety B.J. Foster or junior Josh Thompson out on the field with starters Caden Sterns and Brandon Jones.
On the other side, Herman and offensive coordinator Tim Beck want to ease some of Ehlinger’s substantial burden. That starts with limiting the amount of hits he takes and expanding the running game with sophomore Keaontay Ingram and freshman Jordan Whittington.
Ingram has bulked up to around 220 pounds without sacrificing any of the mobility and acceleration that made him such a coveted recruit. In fact, he’s increased his top speed by a full mile per hour.
And Whittington continues to drop jaws in his transition to tailback, a position he never played full-time before coming to Texas. Herman called the ease with which the Cuero product has taken to the backfield is “one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in my 20-something years coaching.”
“We’ve got to put a greater emphasis on running the football with our tailbacks, designing runs that they’re suited for and understanding their skill set,” Herman said. “And then to take some of those hits off of Sam. We’ve kind of beefed up our RPO (run-pass option) game, so instead of a runrun option it’s more of a run-pass option.”
But there’s time to address all of those issues and any others that might crop up in the coming weeks. All Herman needs to see right now is desire.
“Effort — it is really important,” Herman said. “Really at the end of the day, the first two practices are about understanding the intensity, the urgency and kind of the procedure of how we practice.”