Texas Football: 4 key players winning position battles this spring

Texas football just wrapped up the first spring practice of this week on April 4. Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian only have a handful of practices remaining this spring before the annual Orange-White Game at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on April 15.

Sark and the Longhorns have made a lot of strides this spring, including the rise of quite a few underclassmen in the last three or four weeks. The talent and depth that Texas has put on display in the last few weeks in spring camp has helped to provide some clarity on various position battles on both sides of the ball.

And while there probably won’t be many position battles figured out this spring, these are still some important practice reps for players at certain spots to be able to make necessary strides heading into the fall.

Texas can also use these practice reps down the stretch in spring camp to ready up for the Orange-White Game next weekend.

Key Texas football players in spots to win position battles coming out of spring camp

Here’s a look at four key Longhorns players winning position battles with less than two weeks of spring camp remaining.

David Gbenda, LB

A position of concern in terms of both depth and proven talent heading into the spring for the Longhorns was linebacker. Texas lost senior linebacker DeMarvion Overshown to the NFL Draft, leaving a void at the starting will linebacker spot that is still up in the air at this point of spring ball.

The linebackers competing for the starting reps at the will spot this spring are senior David Gbenda and true freshman early enrollee Anthony Hill Jr.

Heading into the spring, most Texas fans assumed that Hill would eventually win the starting job given that Gbenda was not able to prove himself consistently in live-game settings throughout the last four years.

However, we did see Gbenda start to make a consistent impact on the front seven in limited live-game reps down the stretch last season. Gbenda posted the best defensive grade of his career last season and was rated among the three highest-graded defenders on the team.

A lot of the areas Gbenda needed to improve (i.e. run defense, tackling approach, and contesting space) to become a real consistent force at will linebacker started to show development in Big 12 play last year.

Not only did Gbenda have the longest streak of games without a missed tackle in his collegiate career to date (seven games), but he also racked up five run stops while not missing a single tackle in run defense. These are some pretty significant developments, assuming Gbenda could keep improving in those areas of his game this spring.

And by all accounts so far this spring, Gbenda has continued to make some necessary strides to compete with Hill for starting reps at will linebacker. Sark even lumped Gbenda into a group with senior safety Kitan Crawford and junior linebacker Morice Blackwell Jr. as some upperclassmen for the Longhorns that are showing “considerable progress” this spring.

We’ve heard about Gbenda’s progress throughout the offseason both on and off the practice field. He was a name that was mentioned a lot among those that made an impression on the coaches and made some progress during the winter strength and conditioning program.

Gbenda has also made a lot of plays in individual and team drills this spring. A scrimmage report from Horns247 early this week even noted that Gbenda notched a sack of freshman quarterback Arch Manning in last weekend’s closed scrimmage on April 1.

The most important thing we have to mention here, though, is that it sounds like Gbenda is consistently getting the first-team reps at will linebacker in the last few weeks of spring practice. He seems to have an edge on Hill in the closing stages of spring ball thanks to significant improvement in what could be the final “prove-it” year for Gbenda of his collegiate career.