Texas Football: 3 personnel changes to make during the bye week

Andrej Karic starts in place of Christian Jones

This is really the only part of the list that I would encourage Sark and new offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Kyle Flood to completely replace someone. The others call for just a switch in the number of reps that some players are getting at a particular position group.

The most problematic position group this fall for the Longhorns, by a good margin, sits along the offensive line. Texas can’t get any sort of consistent play out of any of the offensive linemen this fall, maybe outside of super-senior Derek Kerstetter.

As Kerstetter begins to settle in at the right tackle position (and hopefully Junior Angilau will too), Texas needs to hold up more consistently in front of the likes of Thompson and star sophomore running back Bijan Robinson. That’s where this adjustment comes into play of making freshman left tackle Andrej Karic the permanent starter at this spot along the line in place of senior Christian Jones.

There’s no other senior starter that has struggled as much this fall as Jones. Among the regular starters along the offensive line this fall, Jones has by far the worst blocking and pass blocking grade. He’s allowed more than a dozen quarterback pressures. And there are five quarterback hits and sacks that can be faulted to Jones.

Meanwhile, Karic is coming off the best game of his career in the loss to Oklahoma State last weekend. He played 20 snaps at left tackle in place of Jones in this game. And he didn’t allow any run stuffs and gave up one quarterback pressure.

Karic looked more confident and consistent in his play last weekend than he did in the few games prior. Given that he still has a lot of eligibility left in his college career, and Jones does not, it should be a pretty easy decision for Sark and Flood to go with Karic from here on out if he continues to improve.