Texas Football: 3 players that shined in Saturday’s spring practice

Ethan Burke, EDGE

A newer name that has come to the surface a lot throughout practice this week at an important position on the defensive side of the ball is sophomore edge rusher Ethan Burke. The towering 6-foot-7 and 250-pound edge rusher and Austin, TX, native is starting to make some noise in the latter stages of spring practice.

Burke reportedly had some nice reps in practice on April 1 both at edge rusher and as a three-tech along the defensive line. He showed some real versatility in terms of his ability to be disruptive at multiple spots in the box both as a pass rusher and a run stopper.

Multiple practice reports this week from Alex Dunlap of Orangebloods (subscriber content) indicated that Burke was doing well while taking reps at the buck spot with the first team. Throughout most of spring camp thus far, Burke has run with the second-teamers on defense.

It sounds like there are still some necessary strides that Burke must make before he can be counted on as an every-down player at the buck position.

But the fact that we’re hearing about Burke looking stronger at the point of attack while being able to pose some sort of formidable threat against the first and second-team offensive tackles for the Longhorns are signs of progress.

From what we’ve heard coming out of this week of spring practice, it seems like Burke is starting to push sophomore edge rusher Justice Finkley at the buck spot. It sounds like Finkley is still a more consistent run defender, but Burke is starting to come on stronger as a force in the pass rush.