Texas Football: 3 notable nuggets from first day of spring practice

The first day of spring practice has arrived for head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program on March 6. The moment that so many Texas fans wait for months following the conclusion of each and every college football season can now satiate some of the thirst for on-field practice nuggets in spring ball.

Players reported for spring camp over the weekend. And then, Sark and the Longhorns got underway with the first spring practice on the morning of March 6.

With the first day of spring drills always comes a whole helping of nuggets and interesting tidbits. This day was no different as there were some really interesting nuggets we got from various team practice reports and Sark himself coming out of the first morning of spring camp this offseason.

We’ve already discussed some of the nuggets that came out of the first day of spring ball as they’ve come out on March 6. But there are a number of storylines and notes to dig through from the first day of spring ball that we’ll unpack here in a little bit more detail.

Arch Manning’s progress and the notable nuggets from the first day of spring ball for Texas football

Here’s a look at three of the most notable nuggets to come out of the first day of spring ball for the Longhorns on March 6.

Arch Manning gets second-team reps with Maalik Murphy limited in drills

The storyline mentioned on this list that we’ve already discussed on the site on the first day of spring practice involves the former elite five-star recruit and true freshman quarterback Arch Manning getting second-team reps.

Heading into spring ball, I was under the assumption that it would likely be the rising sophomore Maalik Murphy getting the second-team reps at quarterback behind redshirt sophomore Quinn Ewers. With Murphy limited during the first day of spring practice, though, Arch was getting the second-team quarterback reps during the media availability window on March 6.

Arch wound up getting the second-team reps ahead of third-year quarterback Charles Wright, along with a couple of other walk ons in Cole Lourd and Joe Tatum.

Moreover, Sark didn’t give any precise timeline as to when Maalik would be returning to full practice this spring. But he did make it clear that the everyone in this quarterback room will have to compete for their spot in 2023, even Ewers.

I personally believe that this job is still obviously going to be Ewers’ for the taking. But Sark is probably going to give the likes of Arch and Maalik every chance to push Ewers that they possibly can in camp this offseason.