Texas Football: 3 standouts from the first spring scrimmage

Colton Vasek, EDGE

Another impressive outing that we heard about from a player along the defensive front for the Longhorns during the open scrimmage last weekend was the true freshman early enrollee edge rusher Colton Vasek. The former blue-chip recruit and ex-Oklahoma Sooners commit out of Westlake High School in Austin had one of his best showings in spring camp to date on March 25.

Vasek apparently put on a show as one of the multiple Texas edge players that stood out during the open scrimmage last weekend. He got a couple of simulated pressures on the quarterback from what we heard.

An open practice/scrimmage report from Alex Dunlap of Orangebloods on March 25 (subscriber content) indicates that one coach mentioned Vasek showed really “excellent technique” at the point of attack, namely in pass rush situations.

While there is still a long way for Vasek to go in terms of his development as a complete edge rusher, the Austin-area product is still showing a lot of the rare skills required to be an impact pass rusher in the Big 12 as a first-year player.

But Vasek wasn’t the only Texas edge rusher that apparently stood out during the open scrimmage on Saturday. It sounds like sophomore edge rusher Justice Finkley and junior Barryn Sorrell also looked really good.

Why that matters so much that the likes of Vasek, Finkley, and Sorrell were able to put on a show coming off the edge is that Texas had the elite five-star Duncanville edge rusher priority Colin Simmons in attendance for the open scrimmage. Simmons apparently came away impressed from what he saw from this group over the weekend, which only bodes well for where Texas sits in that recruitment coming out of his first spring visit to Austin.