Texas Football: 4 true freshmen impressing most early in summer workouts

Derek Williams, S

The highest-rated recruit among the true freshmen that arrived on campus this summer was the former elite five-star safety out of New Iberia (LA) Westgate High School Derek Williams. The uber-talented true freshman defensive back that the Longhorns nabbed out of SEC country can make an impact on the field this fall.

What’s holding me up from saying that Williams is guaranteed to be an instant impact player for Texas’ secondary this coming season is that he didn’t get the valuable early reps during spring ball. Since Williams enrolled this summer, he’s behind the eight ball regarding the distribution of practice reps at the safety position.

The good news for Williams is that he is more than talented enough to prove to safeties coach Blake Gideon and Pete Kwiatkowski that he is too good to keep off the field for good this fall.

And it sounds like Williams is already starting to prove just how good he can be for the Texas defense in the early stages of summer workouts. Orangebloods reported (subscriber content) that Williams is one of the first names that come to mind among the true freshmen that have “caught the staff’s attention” this summer.

There was some discussion around the topic that Williams could be one of the biggest immediate contributors among the true freshmen summer enrollees during the season. To some degree, it was inevitable for these types of conversations to be avoided this summer concerning William’s ability to make an immediate impact this fall.

But the fact that he’s looking the part as one of the immediate impact candidates among the summer enrollees this soon after arriving on campus is a great sign for his trajectory at Texas.