Texas Football: 3 freshmen stepping up in bowl practice

Jonathon Brooks, RB

Due to the standout running back duo of Bijan and Roschon opting out of the Alamo Bowl, the potent redshirt freshman Jonathon Brooks is taking the first-team reps in practice at the position. Brooks continues to turn heads in practice, as he did throughout last offseason.

This will be Brooks’ opportunity to shine after he spent the last two years backing up the likes of Bijan and Roschon.

I would think that all three of Texas’ former blue-chip running backs that remain active for the Alamo Bowl will play a pretty big role on Dec. 29. That means a bigger workload for true freshman running back Jaydon Blue and likely higher usage in multiple phases of the offense for redshirt junior Keilan Robinson.

Keilan is probably going to get involved in the receiving game more often in the Alamo Bowl along with getting more carries on zone run plays.

But the focal point of the ground game is going to be Brooks from the early indications were getting out of bowl practice. Brooks looked great when given the oppotunity to make an impact on the ground game during the regular season.

He looked really good in Texas’ win over Kansas, where Brooks went off for more than 100 rushing yards on just 11 carries, good for two rushing scores. Brooks showed a lot of explosiveness to his game against Kansas, which came to the forefront on roughly a 70-yard rushing touchdown.

If Brooks shines against the Huskies in the Alamo Bowl, that would be proof enough that he should be one of the top two backs for the Longhorns next year along with the elite five-star Edgewater (FL) runnnig back commit Cedric Baxter Jr.