3 Texas football players that locked up starting jobs in second scrimmage

On Aug. 20, head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program wrapped up the second scrimmage of fall camp. And this was a very highly anticipated scrimmage following Sark naming the starting quarterback ahead of the weekend.

Sark and the Longhorns officially named redshirt freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers the starter over junior Hudson Card on Aug. 19, which was interesting given the timing of it. Yet, it was great for Longhorns fans to hear that there is definitively a starting quarterback. And that’s not to mention how it is the guy that most Texas fans wanted to see become the starter.

Yet, it was also important to see how the first and second teams were shaking out on both sides of the ball during this second fall scrimmage. Texas has a projected two-deep depth chart that now looks much different than it did just a couple of weeks ago after all the injuries that took place last weekend.

Texas football players locking up starting spots after second scrimmage

Here’s a look at three Longhorns players that locked up starting jobs following the second scrimmage of fall camp this weekend.

Byron Murphy, NT

Heading into fall camp, it looked like the projected starter at nose tackle would turn out to be one of the returning seniors, Keondre Coburn or T’Vondre Sweat. Defensive line coach Bo Davis and co-DC/linebackers coach Pete Kwiatkowski at least know what they’re getting out of either Coburn or Sweat to anchor this defensive line.

But the fact of the matter is that the nose tackle that stood above the rest throughout fall camp thus far is sophomore Byron Murphy. The former blue-chip recruit and second-year breakout candidate Murphy took the first-team reps for the Longhorns in the scrimmage this weekend.

And Murphy continued to apparently look like one of the best players on this entire first-team defense. He’s clogging up the lanes, and occasionally overpowering the first-team offensive line when rushing the passer up the middle and defending the run.

There wasn’t much that Murphy did in this second scrimmage that was necessarily much better than what he showed throughout fall camp. And that is the reason why he really deserved to win the starting job over Coburn and Sweat at nose tackle.