Texas Football: 5 Longhorns worth watching amid spring camp

Since there is going to be so much turnover along the offensive line for the Texas football program, there will have to be some new faces that step up to fill some openings. Texas has three departing seniors that were regular starters for last season at the very least along the offensive line. The notable of that group includes tackle Calvin Anderson and guard/center Elijah Rodriguez.

One player that might have to step up for Herman and co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Herb Hand this year is the rising junior former three-star recruit Derek Kerstetter. Standing at 6-foot-5 and 305 pounds, strength and conditioning coach Yancy McKnight helped him put on some size to help continue the improvement of this line.

Entering the 2018 campaign, Kerstetter was expected to be one of the bigger rising sophomores that took some big strides. Instead, the Texas offensive line mostly moved forward without him since redshirt freshman tackle Sam Cosmi and Anderson stepped up in his place. Kerstetter did get a good amount of game action last year, but he’ll be slotted in a starting position for the second straight year in spring camp.

The difference now for Kerstetter is that he’ll have to slot himself as a front runner for a starting offensive guard spot if he ever wants to hang onto a prominent role in the trenches on the Forty Acres again. He’ll have some stiff competition coming his way this off-season with incoming graduate transfer guard Parker Braun and JUCO offensive tackle Willie Tyler.