3 notable adjustments Texas football made during the bye week

More first and second-team practice reps going to JD Coffey at safety

Speaking of injuries in the secondary, one of the necessary adjustments that this staff was forced to make during the bye week was shifting practice reps at safety following the injuries to Guilbeau and Cook in the loss to Oklahoma State.

Cook suffered a broken forearm on Oct. 22, and Guilbeau will miss “some time” due to the aforementioned injury issue he’s dealing with at the moment.

In the wake of the injuries to Cook and Guilbeau, Texas will have to turn to some younger defensive backs for answers in the next couple of weeks in all likelihood. It’s also worth noting that the cross-training at safety is even more important right now since it looked like junior Jerrin Thompson was dealing with a lingering injury issue for the last few games.

According to a report from Eric Nahlin of Inside Texas on Oct. 29 (paid content), Texas got more reps at safety in practice last week to sophomore JD Coffey III. And both Coffey and freshman BJ Allen Jr. got additional reps and exposure in practice during the bye week at the safety position.

But since Coffey and Allen both predominantly play at field safety, the reps won’t be plentiful for them down the stretch this season. That is unless Thompson is limited due to lingering injury issues in the next few games, thus giving way to more live-game reps to the backup field safeties.

If there are some rotations at safety down the stretch this season, one of the players that would likely be getting more reps in the process is Coffey.

Moreover, it does sound like the coaches will trust Coffey getting more reps at safety down the stretch given the positive impression he left on the staff in the last couple of weeks in practice.

Coffey has taken 38 defensive snaps over the course of two games this season (Oklahoma and UL-Monroe). He wasn’t a regular part of the safety rotation in each of the last two seasons.