Texas freshman DL Jaray Bledsoe to miss the rest of spring camp

Among the double-digit number of early enrollees for second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff this spring in the Texas football program, a good portion of them play along the defensive front. Texas is pretty deep along the defensive front in spring camp largely thanks to a healthy number of early enrollees coming to campus this semester to fill those spots.

But the Longhorns are now set to see one of these key early enrollees along the defensive front from the 2022 recruiting class miss the rest of spring ball. And that freshman early enrollee along the defensive line that is set to miss the rest of spring camp is the former four-star recruit and Marlin, TX, native Jaray Bledsoe.

According to a report from Inside Texas on April 13 (paid content), the Longhorns are set to miss Bledsoe for the rest of spring camp due to appendicitis, which he apparently suffered late last week. Bledsoe reportedly needed surgery last week.

Texas football will miss freshman DL Jaray Bledsoe for the rest of spring camp

Since there are less than two weeks remaining in spring camp, it’s not all that surprising that this will keep Bledsoe out for the remainder of practice/the spring football game. Yet, it is unfortunate that this happened given the fact that Bledsoe was making a good impression on the coaching staff through the first couple of weeks of spring practice.

The 6-foot-4 and 280-pound Bledsoe is competing with the likes of Vernon Broughton, Myron Warren, and Jordon Thomas, among a few others for early reps either as a three-technique defensive lineman or at the jack edge rusher position.

Bledsoe has a very high ceiling and gifted physical tools that jump off the page on film. He’s got insane explosiveness off the line of scrimmage and excellent pursuit of the ball carrier. Bledsoe has some work to do on the fundamental aspect of playing along the defensive line (whether it be as an edge rusher or with the three-technique), but he’s a very promising piece to this defensive front for Pete Kwiatkowski.

Texas has a little more than one week remaining in spring practice as of April 13. And the Orange-White spring football game is set to take place at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on April 23.