3 Texas football players to watch during first fall scrimmage this weekend

On Aug. 13, head coach Steve Sarkisian and Texas football will take part in the first scrimmage of fall camp. This first fall scrimmage for Texas will come just three weeks before the regular season opener, when this team faces the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks out of the Sun Belt at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial on Sep. 3.

The first fall scrimmage for Longhorns will be an opportunity for the coaches, along with the fans and media to get some insight into what this team is shaping up to be heading into the regular season. It should also shed some light on any progress that Texas is making in naming winners of various position battles on both sides of the ball.

Texas fans are namely eager to hear about how close Sark is to naming a starting quarterback. The quarterback competition is still one of the dominant storylines taking hold in the first half of fall camp. And that will certainly be one of the overarching focuses in the first fall scrimmage this weekend.

Texas football roughly 24 hours from the first fall scrimmage

With that in mind, here’s a look at three Longhorns players to watch in the first fall scrimmage on Aug. 13.

Jerrin Thompson, S

One of the projected starters at safety for Texas heading into the regular season is junior Jerrin Thompson. Despite the skepticism of some since spring ball, Thompson has continued to get the first-team reps at the free safety position. He’s managed to hold off the likes of the former converted linebacker and sophomore Mo Blackwell Jr., junior Kitan Crawford, and JD Coffey II throughout the offseason thus far.

This will be a big opportunity this weekend, though, for Thompson to prove that he’s ready to consistently rise to the occasion as the starting field safety this fall.

Last season, Thompson was one of the more inconsistent performers on the defensive side of the ball. He was often seen taking poor approaches and angles to tackles and just wasn’t getting the right reads in pass coverage at times.

From what we’ve heard coming out of fall camp in the last couple of weeks, Thompson is becoming a more frequent and confident communicator in the secondary. He’s also making some of the necessary strides in terms of continuing to digest the defensive concepts under Pete Kwiatkowski.

Sark even took the time to mention how Thompson is becoming more confident as a communicator and potential emerging leader on the back end of this defense in fall camp. We heard some good remarks from Sark on Thompson’s progress in this regard in a press conference this week.

All in all, the fall scrimmage will really be the first big chance for Thompson to prove some of these strides he’s made so far this offseason. If he can prove that he can become a better and more consistent fundamental tackler and really just emerge as a vocal leader in this secondary, that would be considered a major success for Thompson coming out of the first scrimmage this weekend.