Texas Football: 3 true freshmen that stole the show in winter conditioning

The last couple of months saw the new enrollees for Texas football start to get antiquated on the Forty Acres ahead of the start of spring ball. Texas just wrapped up the bulk of the winter conditioning program as the start of spring drills is now just a few weeks away.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns will begin spring camp on March 6, which will encompass 15 spring practices. That all comes before the Longhorns return to the field at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on April 15 for the annual Orange-White spring football game.

There is plenty to look back on from winter workouts for the last couple of months thanks to the plethora of impactful new additions to the program that the Longhorns have in the mix this offseason. Texas brought in more than a dozen early enrollees via high school recruiting in the 2023 class.

And there was a trio of NCAA Transfer Portal players that also arrived on campus for the spring semester by way of the 2023 class.

But it is the early enrollees that we’re focusing on here. There were a handful of early enrollees that really made some progress in the winter conditioning program, which gives them a leg up even before the start of spring ball.

Johntay Cook II highlights the true freshmen that stole the show for Texas football in winter S&C

With that in mind, here’s a look at three early enrollees for the Longhorns that stole the show during winter conditioning.

https://twitter.com/TexasFootball/status/1606097413751521280

Connor Stroh, OL

One of the names that we started to hear more about in the latter stages of winter workouts in terms of the standouts among the early enrollees is the former three-star Frisco Wakeland offensive tackle recruit Connor Stroh.

This towering in-state offensive lineman was the perfect get on the recruiting trail for offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Kyle Flood and the Longhorns in terms of the type of “big humans” they want manning the trenches upon the move to the SEC next year.

A report from Eric Nahlin of Inside Texas on Feb. 21 (paid content) mentioned that Stroh looks the part of the “most physically ready to play” of the early enrollees along the offensive line. It sounds like Stroh continues to show off that impressive weightlifting ability, which is bolstered by his insane 6-foot-6 and 350-pound frame.

The coaching staff is also reportedly working on getting Stroh more mobile while retaining and improving (in certain areas) the muscle mass he arrived on campus with.

Stroh has made more strides already in terms of getting his body right for spring ball than most of the other early enrollees we’ve heard about in the 2023 class. That’s not to say that the other linemen among the early enrollees weren’t making the right impression in winter workouts.

But Stroh was the name that we heard a lot about late in the winter conditioning program among the offensive linemen.