Freshmen catching on quickly
Despite missing out on spring practice, duo flash potential
AUSTIN — The two freshmen hardly could look more different.
Ja’Tavion Sanders is a 6-foot-4, 256-pound bull. His quads bulge, like they’re somehow air-inflated, while broad shoulders and meaty arms stretch compression gear to its limit. The football looks like a squishy Nerf toy when clasped in one of Sanders’ hands.
Xavier Worthy comes up about three inches and 100 pounds short of his new teammate’s substantial measurements. The 6-1, 160-pound wide receiver is more like a speed skater, lithe and agile, a graceful menace with the rock secured in his considerably smaller hands.
Eventually, first-year Texas coach Steve Sarkisian believes these two young Longhorns will grow to terrorize opposing defenses. But it’s going require time and patience before the summer enrollees start to go all thunderand-lightning in an actual game setting.
Sanders and Worthy are starting behind not only the veterans, but also the 2021 signees who enrolled in January. Receiver Jaden Alexis and tight ends Juan Davis and Gunnar Helm all benefited from being on-campus for 15 spring practices and taking part in the accompanying conditioning, weight training and nutritional programs.
But Sanders and Worthy might not be at a disadvantage for long.
Sanders was the highestranked player in former coach Tom Herman’s final signing class, and Worthy was a vital late addition. The five-star two-way wunderkind out of Denton Ryan and four-star receiver from Fresno, Calif., were ranked No. 13 and No. 62 in the nation, respectively, in the 2021 cycle by the 247Sports composite.
Of the two, Sanders will take more time to adapt. He spent so much time being the do-it-all for reigning 5A Division I champion Ryan that true specialization and dedication to a singular role wasn’t an option.
Through four preseason practices, Sanders’ relative inexperience has shone through.
“Oh, he’s obviously a physical kid for a true freshmen, right, a 255, 260-pound tight end; he’s athletic,” Sarkisian said Monday. “One thing that can hurt a guy early on is we’re trying to be physical, we’re trying to play fast and play aggressively and all those things. But as the installs add up, that can start to slow you down, that can start to create some hesitation.
“We want him to overcome it as soon as possible. I know he does too. But that’s just coming with understanding what am I supposed to do on every play, where I’m at, do it fast, do it aggressively. And you see the flashes, then you see moments of uncertainty. So we just got to overcome that. But, hey, he’s a true freshman who’s had four college practices, and he’s got a very bright future ahead of him.”
Unlike Sanders, Worthy didn’t sign with Texas in December when Herman was still in charge. He signed a national letter of intent with Michigan during the early signing period, only to decommit April 15. Sarkisian offered Worthy a scholarship that same day.
“I was fortunate,” Sarkisian said. “I recruited him pretty hard at the last place (Alabama), and I was the area recruiter, so I developed a pretty good relationship with he and his mother. So when he ended up getting out of his NLI and started to look, they actually reached out to us. So there had already been a pretty significant relationship there. I think he already knew the style of offense that we have because I’ve recruited him before. And he’s come right in and has gone for it.”
Worthy’s new teammates seem to think he’s a good fit, too. The eighth-ranked wideout in this cycle once ran a 10.55-second 100meter dash as a sophomore and recorded 55 catches for 992 yards and 16 touchdowns as a junior.
Worthy did not play in 2020 because of California’s COVID-19 guidelines.
Junior Joshua Moore, a slim and slippery wideout, likened Worthy to someone familiar.
“I like him a lot,” Moore said last week. “Speed, (high) football IQ. He runs great routes. Quick. Reminds me a lot of myself, I’m being honest.”
And junior tailback Roschon Johnson took immediate notice of how Worthy blazes around the field.
“First thing I noticed was his quickness and his ability to change directions and catch the ball,” Johnson said last week. “He can honestly do pretty much anything that you ask of him. I haven’t really seen any weak points in his game. I think his quickness and his ability to get in and out of breaks and create one-on-one matchups and win those matchups as well, I think he’ll add a lot of explosion to the offense.”
Everyone inside the football program believes Worthy and Sanders will help Texas’ offense boom someday. No one knows how long that process will take, but as Sarkisian said Monday after practice, they want to “get there as fast as possible.”