3 takeaways from Texas football’s first week of fall practice

This weekend, Texas football and head coach Steve Sarkisian are getting ready to wrap up the first week of fall camp. Texas began fall camp meetings on Aug. 2, and the first day of practice came on Aug. 3. As of Aug. 6, Texas is on the fourth day of fall practice which means that we’re starting to see some of the bigger storylines play out ahead of the regular season opener.

Sark and the Longhorns still have a multitude of looming tasks to work through in fall camp before they’ll be ready for the regular season opener on Sep. 3 at home against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks. Texas needs to figure out the quarterback competition, among a number of other position battles, in the next couple of weeks.

And while we didn’t have much in the way of insight into the leaders in some prospective position battles in fall camp during the first week, we’re starting to see some of those processes play out. It feels like the next 10 days or so will see a number of the spots on the two-deep get resolved.

Notes and thoughts from Texas football’s first week of fall camp

With that in mind, here’s a look at three takeaways from the first week of fall camp for the Longhorns.

It will be difficult to keep Kelvin Banks off the field out of the gates this season

All eyes among Texas fans seem to be focusing on what comes about from the various offensive line position battles at the outset of fall camp. Texas fans want to know who will be responsible for protecting either redshirt freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers or junior Hudson Card at the outset of the regular season.

Offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Kyle Flood and the Longhorns opted to give the most experienced offensive linemen most of the first-team reps in the first couple of days of fall practice this week. But in the last 48 hours, we’ve started to see Flood and this staff budge more in terms of sliding up some of these talented and potent freshmen to get more second and/or first-team reps in practice.

And that trend is likely to continue as we get closer and closer to the regular season opener.

One particular true freshman that Texas fans are keen on is the former elite five-star recruit and Summer Creek offensive tackle product Kelvin Banks. From what we’ve heard and seen in the first week of fall practice, Banks definitely looks the part.

And with some of the struggles that Texas had at the offensive tackle position last season, especially in pass protection, it wouldn’t surprise me to see at least one freshman starting here in 2022. Banks seems to be the go-to option if Flood and the Longhorns do opt to have a true freshman starting in Week 1 at one of the offensive tackle spots.

It will also help Banks’ case that most of the returns from the first week of fall practice indicate that he’s fairing better than the likes of sophomore offensive tackle Andrej Karic and super senior Christian Jones.

I’d imagine that, with the way things are trending now in fall practice, Banks will make it very difficult for Flood to keep him off the field at offensive tackle right from the get-go this season.