Texas Football: WR Kennedy Lewis suspended from Longhorns

Some bad news emerged for the Texas football program ahead of the start of spring ball with the temporary suspension of wide receiver Kennedy Lewis.

A reported temporary suspension for a notable former three-star recruit and wide receiver Kennedy Lewis could hurt the depth at that position in spring camp for the Texas football program. Wide receiver is already a young position for head coach Tom Herman heading into spring camp, so this news isn’t good for this group.

The Texas Longhorns football program is also already missing former four-star recruit and wide receiver Joshua Moore thanks to a suspension last year. Texas can’t afford to be missing this many young skill position players in a crucial set of spring drills on the Forty Acres.

The latest news of this temporary suspension from the Longhorns for Lewis comes out of nowhere and is a big setback for a player that showed some promise last year throughout the offseason. The 6-foot-3 and 200 pound Lewis will have a long uphill battle to work his way up the depth chart now heading into his redshirt freshman season.

Anwar Richardson was the first to report on his Twitter timeline on Feb. 22 that the Longhorns were to temporarily suspend Lewis from the team throughout spring camp. He looks to be set to return to the team around the start of summer workouts in June.

Now Lewis won’t be able to start getting adjusted to the new offensive schemes ran under recently hired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich. And he won’t be able to get a leg up in the eyes of recently promoted wide receivers coach Andre Coleman.

Lewis was recruited while co-wide receivers coaches Drew Mehringer and Corby Meekins were still on this Texas coaching staff under Herman. Meekins was demoted and then left Texas completely and Mehringer was outright fired after the regular season finale win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders back in November 2019.

During his true freshman campaign, Lewis saw production in just one game. He had one catch for 37 yards. He was able to take a redshirt since the NCAA requires players to participate in more than four games to burn one year of eligibility.

Lewis is a former three-star wide receiver signee and was part of the 2019 recruiting class. He ranked as the nation’s No. 650 2019 high school prospect and the No. 83 wide receiver. Lewis is a product of Melissa High School and a native of Melissa, TX. He originally chose to commit to the Longhorns over offers from the Baylor Bears, Florida Gators, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Oklahoma State Cowboys, and Washington State Cougars.

As one of the more sizable and promising wideouts for the Longhorns in 2020, this is a big setback for both the team and the individual player. Lewis was a candidate to get more playing time at the Z-wide receiver spot this fall.