Texas Football: 3 second-year players with the most to prove in spring

The start of spring ball is now one week away for the Texas football program. Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian will kick off camp with the first day of spring practice on March 6.

Sark and the Longhorns will then have 15 spring practices before it’s time to return to some sort of action on the field at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium since last fall. Texas will take part in the annual Orange-White spring football game at DKR on April 15.

There is a lot of buzz surrounding the Longhorns heading into spring ball, especially with all the positive returns we’ve received from the new additions to the program in winter workouts. Texas bought in 14 early enrollees from the high school ranks in the 2023 class. The Longhorns also have three NCAA Transfer Portal pickups on campus for spring ball that have made some noise in the last couple of months.

Following some of the younger players that need to step up in 2023 will be one of the focal points of spring ball. If Texas can get some new faces to rise to the occasion in camp, that will further solidify the Longhorns’ chances to make a Big 12 title run in the fall.

Texas football sophomores with the most to prove in spring camp

Here’s a look at three second-year players with the most to prove in spring ball in 2023 for the Longhorns.

Terrance Brooks, CB

Texas’ secondary returning for the 2023 season is probably the strength of this side of the ball. At each position in the secondary, Texas is pretty loaded with depth and talent.

And really the only spot in the secondary that will have any sort of position battle taking place is at field cornerback.

Heading into spring ball, rising sophomore Terrance Brooks is likely in the best spot to get the first-team reps in camp. Despite senior cornerback D’Shawn Jamison being available in the last couple of games of the 2022 season, Brooks still got the bulk of the reps at the position to close out the campaign.

Brooks has a lot of the tools necessary to succeed as Texas’ starting field corner. He showed good instincts and ball skills. In the final four games of last season, Brooks registered three pass breakups and four forced incompletions compared to just one touchdown in pass coverage. He also came up with two nice pass breakups in the bowl game alone.

Moreover, while it seems like the momentum currently favors Brooks heading into spring ball to win the starting job at field corner, he’ll still have a lot of worthy competition coming from the likes of freshman Malik Muhammad and redshirt junior transfer Gavin Holmes. Both Muhammad and Holmes will be plenty capable of taking reps away from Brooks at field corner this spring if he doesn’t show out early in camp.