4 Texas football upperclassmen with the most to prove in spring camp

Jerrin Thompson, S

Another looming position battle for the Longhorns lies at safety. Texas is going to have to figure out some of the issues they had in the secondary last season. The good news in regard to that is the fact that Texas has a lot of returning talent and experience in the secondary, and there is a good amount of incoming talent as well.

One particular safety to watch for Texas in spring ball will be the rising junior and former blue-chip recruit Jerrin Thompson. Texas saw flashes from Thompson in the last couple of seasons, but he hasn’t produced on a consistent basis so far.

Thompson will definitely be someone that will be contending to win the starting spot at free safety, especially with the departure of the former transfer and senior safety Brenden Schooler.

Winning the starting free safety spot won’t come without its challenges, though, for Thompson. He will likely have to beat out others such as freshman JD Coffey II and now junior Kitan Crawford. We don’t know yet exactly where Crawford will be slotted after moving from cornerback to safety heading into spring camp.

But we do know that there will be some other rising defensive backs that will be trying to take first-team reps away from Thompson.

All in all, a good place to start for Thompson in spring ball in terms of the areas where he needs to prove himself will be with sure tackling, leadership to guide some of the younger defensive backs, and improving instincts in pass coverage.

Thompson does have a lot of the tools necessary to become one of the better safeties in the Big 12. He’s a rangy and physical safety with enough speed and ball skills to really make some plays in the secondary for Texas. Thompson just needs to clean up the missed tackle issues and get a quicker read on diagnosing plays when he does line up near the line of scrimmage or in the box.