Texas Football: Receiving corps could be special for Longhorns in 2020

A very talented group of wide receivers for the 2020 season could be a driving force of offensive success for the Texas football program.

If the 2020 college football season holds up in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic and sees some schedule played for the Texas football program, it could be special this fall. Texas brings back a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, and has more battled tested veteran leadership on each side that should be able to guide this team through the various hurdles 2020 presented so far.

Earlier this month, the Longhorns did start in mandatory summer workouts in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. That was obviously going to present its fair share of challenges given that this is really the first set of team workouts since winter 2019-20. Winter workouts don’t offer all that much for too long either.

Texas is supposedly less than two months away from the kickoff of the 2020 season, which is set to come on Sep. 5 at home against the South Florida Bulls. But that is to say that COVID-19 won’t push back the season at all, or cancel the non-conference portion of the schedule entirely.

Most other Power Five conferences already at least made the move to cancel out their non-conference schedules (I.E. Big Ten, ACC, and PAC-12).

Yet, if the 2020 season somehow goes on ahead as planned, there’s so much to be excited about for the Longhorns this fall. There’s a lot of positive signs from what the Longhorns are putting on display in summer workouts.

One area of summer workouts that seems especially promising is the progress of the receiving corps. Texas had a lot of movement in their receiving corps so far during the 2020 offseason. The more notable to those roster moves included redshirt freshman former five-star recruit Jordan Whittington going back to his original position and former Michigan grad transfer Tarik Black joining the Longhorns.

Two other key changes (beyond the two key wide receiver losses of Collin Johnson and Devin Duvernay to the NFL) are the return of rising redshirt sophomore Joshua Moore and any possibility of Brennan Eagles missing the 2020 season. But it appears that Moore and Eagles are both ready to go for the 2020 season, as it stands now.

After missing the 2019 campaign due to off-the-field issues and suspension, Moore has returned and could be in a starting role this fall. He could be vying for the Z-wide receiver slot this year. And Whittington and Eagles should be two of the other most crucial skill position weapons for the Longhorns in the 2020 campaign.

According to a Horns247 report (paid content), Moore appears “healthy and focused” for the 2020 season, at least as it stands early in summer workouts. And Eagles “hasn’t missed a meeting or voluntary workout and has been a part of every mandatory team activity this week”, which is fairly surprising news.

Rising senior star quarterback Sam Ehlinger is going to need his receivers to put their best foot forward for whatever season comes along in 2020. Texas could have a really proficient offense behind head coach Tom Herman and recently hired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich this fall if the right pieces fall into place.