Texas has a rare luxury for spring football: depth
Early on during the first practice this spring for the Texas football team on Tuesday, Isaiah Bond, Matthew Golden and Parker Livingstone lined up on the right side of the field, ran deep routes and caught passes thrown by Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning.
On the opposite side of the field, Johntay Cook II, Ryan Wingo and Aaron Butler were doing the same.
Now, most Texas fans are likely familiar with Cook’s work. As a freshman last season, he appeared in 14 games as a reserve receiver. His eight receptions resulted in 136 yards. Those other receivers, however, weren’t Longhorns in 2023. Bond (Alabama) and Golden (Houston) transferred in. Butler, Livingstone and Wingo were still in high school.
That quintet provided some of the fresh faces for Texas at the Denius Field. The Longhorns opened their spring practices with 25 newcomers — seven transfers and 18 early enrollees from the 2024 recruiting class — in attendance. It was UT’s first practice since its season ended Jan. 1 in New Orleans with a 37-31 loss to Washington in a College Football Playoff semifinal. The practice also marked the beginning of the SEC era for the Longhorns, who will move to their new conference in July.
“For us, this was a pretty good first day,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “I’m always hesitant to lay too much praise after one practice. I’m always a little hesitant to be too critical after one practice.”
With so many newcomers, Texas boasts depth that it usually doesn’t have during the spring. In fact, Sarkisian said the team ran some drills on Tuesday that allowed fourth-string players to get reps.
But that doesn’t mean there weren’t
some growing pains experienced by the new guys.
At one point during the portion of practice that was open to the media, running backs coach Tashard Choice was seen instructing freshman running back Christian Clark to not leave his feet for a catch. Livingstone was later pulled aside by Sarkisian after he dropped a pass from Manning.
When asked about the challenges of breaking in so many newcomers, Sarkisian joked “just getting them to go the right way.” He then explained that it may take a little while for players to adjust to how Texas practices.
“You go out to practice the first time and you just hope guys are where they’re supposed to be,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got a lot of moving parts when we practice. I’m not one where I like guys standing around, and so generally when we’re working one drill over here, we’ve got three other drills going on at the same time and a lot of times a new face can get lost and be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Then he’s not getting those reps to do what he needs to do.
“But that goes back to when they first get here in school,” Sarkisian continued. “You just try to get them going in the right direction, taking the necessary steps and being where they’re supposed to be off the field, and then trying to get them to be where they’re supposed to be on the field. That lends itself into their play, being where they’re supposed to be from play to play to play and doing what they’re supposed to do.”
Sarkisian: ‘You find out more as we go’
At least publicly, Sarkisian didn’t have much to nitpick about Tuesday’s practice. There will be plenty for the Longhorns to work on between now and the Orange-White spring scrimmage on
April 20. Besides, it should be noted that players were running around in shirts and shorts to begin this week.
“I refer to today’s practice as underwear, and we don’t play football in underwear, right? We play it in armor. You find out more as we go,” Sarkisian said. “But this gives a good sense and a gauge of where we’re at from a starting point, and this was a pretty good starting point for us. You can tell the guys have been in their playbooks and studying. You can tell the intent of our coaches.”
A busy week around Texas athletics
Tuesday’s practice kicked off a busy week for the football program. In addition to practicing two more times this week, Texas will host a pro day for its NFL hopefuls on Wednesday. The annual clinic for high school coaches is scheduled for this weekend, and Super Bowl-winning coach Sean McVay will be the event’s featured speaker.
But despite that packed schedule,
Sarkisian didn’t want to talk about football when he opened his availability. “First, I want to kick it off about March Madness,” Sarkisian announced after he took his seat.
After being assigned a No. 7 seed, Texas’ basketball team will open its NCAA Tournament run on Thursday night against either Colorado State or Virginia. And the women’s basketball team earned a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2004 and will host Drexel at Moody Center for a first-round game on Friday afternoon.
“I’m super fired up for women’s basketball and Vic Schaefer getting a one seed, hosting here Friday,” Sarkisian said. “I think it’s two o’clock, so hopefully everybody comes out and supports what they’re doing. And obviously (on Thursday), our men’s basketball team with a great opportunity, got a pretty good seed with a seven seed as they start their journey as well.”