Texas Football: 3 biggest losers from spring ball for the Longhorns

Texas football wrapped up spring ball a little more than one week ago, with the commencement of the annual Orange-White spring football game at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on April 15. Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian saw the White Team down the Orange Team at DKR last weekend by the final score of 21-10.

With spring ball now in the rearview mirror, we can take some time to digest some of the practice notes and depth chart movement that took place in the last couple of months.

There were a lot of positive developments that took place for Sark and the Longhorns throughout spring camp. We saw the improved talent and depth within the program come to the forefront. But with some of the positive transgressions, naturally, we saw some Longhorns players get key first and second-team practice reps taken away as other players made necessary strides in camp.

DJ Campbell and the Texas football players that lost ground in depth chart battles this spring

With that in mind, here’s a look at three of the biggest losers from spring ball for the Longhorns this offseason.

DJ Campbell, IOL

Along the interior offensive line, there were multiple underclassmen that had opportunities to show they deserve to be on the two-deep throughout spring practice.

Offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Kyle Flood and the Longhorns were left pretty thin along the interior offensive line this spring due to injuries to sophomore Cole Hutson and redshirt freshman center Connor Robertson. Both Hutson and Robertson missed spring ball due to injuries they suffered ahead of the offseason.

Hutson missing spring ball opened the door for the former elite five-star recruit and sophomore interior offensive lineman DJ Campbell to move in on a first-team spot at right guard. Since Hutson was the starter at right guard for most of last season, Campbell had his opportunity to prove to Flood and the Longhorns staff this spring that he could push fellow second-year IOL for the starting job at that spot heading into the fall.

We saw flashes from Campbell down the stretch last season that he was starting to settle into the blocking schemes in run blocking and pass pro when he took some key live-game reps in place of Hutson, who missed some time in the last few weeks due to injury.

But Campbell wasn’t able to build on those strides he made down the stretch last season in the early stages of spring practice. From what we heard in the first few weeks of spring ball, Campbell still wasn’t showing much in practice to convince Flood that he can push Hutson for the first-team reps this fall. That led to the assumption coming out of spring practice that the projected top group along the offensive line heading into fall camp will be the same five that capped last season.

Campbell missing the spring game due to a wrist injury also didn’t help his case to get valuable extra spring practice and spring game reps at the right guard position.

It is worth noting that Campbell will still have the chance to push Hutson for that starting spot at right guard this fall. A spring practice team report from Eric Nahlin of Inside Texas a couple of weeks ago (paid content) mentioned the expectation that Campbell will still compete for first-team reps along the interior offensive line heading into the fall with Hutson.

I think the same could be said for sophomore Cam Williams, who started at right guard after moving from offensive tackle in the last couple of weeks of spring practice and in the Orange-White Game.

Alex Dunlap of Orangebloods put it well recapping Williams’ performance in the spring game will force Flood and the Longhorns’ staff to make some “tough decisions” when piecing together the first-team interior offensive line this fall.