Texas Football: 3 freshmen stepping up in bowl practice
DJ Campbell, G
According to an early practice report and team notes from Inside Texas this week, the former five-star recruit and true freshman offensive guard DJ Campbell is getting first-team practice reps in place of the injured Cole Hutson.
Hutson suffered a lower-body injury in Texas’ win in the regular season finale at home on Nov. 25 over the Baylor Bears. That lower-body injury initially looked to be pretty serious, as Hutson was carted off the field. But it turned out that Hutson suffered an ankle sprain and that he could potentially return for the Longhorns as soon as bowl practice leading up to the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29.
While Hutson works his way back from the lower-body injury he suffered in the finale a few weeks ago, Campbell is doing well taking the first-team practice reps at right guard.
Campbell took an increasing number of offensive snaps at right guard down the stretch during the regular season. He wound up taking nearly two-dozen snaps at right guard in Texas’ win over the Kansas Jayhawks on Nov. 19. And he got more than 40 snaps in place of Huston after he was injured against Baylor.
As the season progressed, Campbell got looked more comfortable in pass protection. And he’s looked the part in terms of his ability to move bodies off the line of scrimmage and get some real push downfield in run blocking throughout.
Outside of one bad pressure up the middle that Campbell allowed on his first snap in pass pro against Baylor, he held up well. That is the only QB pressure I’ve seen Campbell allow all season in more than 30 snaps in pass protection.
From what we’ve heard coming out of practice in the last few weeks, Campbell is getting a better grasp on the protections and concepts in this offense.
Even if Hutson is able to return from the ankle injury to practice before the Alamo Bowl, I don’t know if Kyle Flood and the Longhorns would want to take the risk of making the injury worse if Campbell is performing so well and showing these types of progressions in practice. Granted, that viewpoint is based mostly on speculation.