Put me in, coach: Walk-ons proving worth
AUSTIN — Last week, at the tail end of a team meeting, something incredible flashed across the projector screen at the head of the room: “The University of Texas football team is proud to offer scholarships to Russel Hine and Cort Jaquess.”
Hine sat silent, shocked, before being mobbed. Jaquess, too, became the nucleus of a crazed celebration.
After two years of grinding, the redshirt sophomore linebackers were walk-ons no more. And that was always the plan. Or, at least, the hope.
In Tom Herman’s world, a walkon isn’t another body to be used as cannon fodder for the program’s crop of four- and five-star recruits.
What the Longhorns’ coach desires is a player who could one day bloom into a scholarship-worthy piece.
“What am I looking for? I’m looking for a guy that, maybe if he had another year or two to develop, would be a Texas recruit, maybe a late-bloomer, maybe a guy that needs another year in the weight room,” Herman said of his ideal walk-on target. “Maybe for whatever reason, one measurable might just not quite be there yet, but you see the potential for it to be there, then all the intangibles are there: the toughness, physicality, accountability, academically you got to get into Texas. You look for all those intangibles.”
Hine and Jaquess checked all the requisite boxes. It didn’t hurt that they play a position that may be this team’s most vulnerable.
But the pair share another trait common among Longhorn walkons: they’re born-and-bred Texans. Hine is an Austinite who attended Regents School. Jaquess is a Longhorn legacy — his father Jay was a three-year letterman from 1986-88 — and Churchill grad. They’re not alone. Walk-on freshman quarterback Sam Saxton, a three-star recruit with multiple scholarship offers elsewhere, is a local and a thirdgeneration Longhorn. Walk-on linebacker Jake Ehlinger is the younger brother of junior quarterback Sam. Senior defensive back-turned-tailback Mason Ramirez was raised in Round Rock.
“The tie to Texas certainly helps, because I think when you bleed burnt orange, it’s a lot easier to take that path as a walk-on,” Herman said. “To know that you’re going to have to fight, scratch, claw and do everything that you can to earn your way on to the field for the University of Texas. But for them, for the most part, all of that is worth it.”
A rash of injuries has suddenly thrust Herman’s “preferred walkon” program into the spotlight.
Starting running back Keontay Ingram (knee) and senior backup Kirk Johnson (shoulder) are both on the shelf for several weeks, leaving true freshman Jordan Whittington and junior Daniel Young as the only healthy scholarship tailbacks available. Unwilling to risk injury to that active duo, Herman has doled out more reps to Ramirez and second-year walk-on Jarrett Smith.
In fact, that walk-on tandem received the bulk of the work during Saturday’s scrimmage.
“We’ve got a couple of walk-on guys that are that are doing a really good job,” Herman said. “They know the offense and perform well.”
During this February’s signing day, Herman carved out some time to praise the power behind the walk-on program: director of high school relations Bob Shipley and assistant director of player personnel John Michael Jones.
Their efforts have helped the Longhorns recruit and develop a more talented pool of serviceable walk-ons to be called upon in times of desperation — like, say, a fall camp where one injury seems to beget another.
“It’s something that we made a very big emphasis on when we got here was to grow that and enhance that,” Herman said of the walk-on program. “Over the last two years, John Michael Jones and Bob Shipley have done a phenomenal job of bringing in some really, really talented players, really strong academic students and guys to our culture.”
Of course, Herman hopes he never has to rely on a slew of nonscholarship players. But there is at least some comfort in knowing some of those relative unknowns are ready to step in.
And it doesn’t hurt to help fulfill a few dreams along the way.
“My dad played football here, he was on scholarship here, and every single day I’ve striven to be exactly like him,” Jaquess said. “This is all I wanted.”