Texas Football: Jonathon Brooks ‘is the bell cow’ RB for Longhorns

Texas football kicked off training camp with the first day of fall practice on Aug. 2. This was the first look for Texas fans to see what the players look like physically coming out of summer workouts.

One Longhorns player that looked the part physically during the first day of fall practice was redshirt sophomore running back Jonathon Brooks. The 6-foot and 207-pound Hallettsville, TX, native running back looked fully healthy and ready to go during the first day of fall practice this week.

Brooks looking fully healthy on the first day of fall practice is big so that he can prove to the coaches that he is the deserving RB1 heading into Week 1 against the Rice Owls on Sep. 2. Head coach Steve Sarkisian pinpointed running back as one of the notable fall camp position battles during his pre-training camp press conference on Aug. 1.

"“I think running back is going to end up being a tough call as we get to that point.”"

Texas football RB Jonathon Brooks out to prove he’s the deserving starter in fall camp

Brooks is competing with redshirt senior Keilan Robinson, sophomore Jaydon Blue, and true freshman CJ Baxter Jr. for the starting job at running back in fall camp.

https://twitter.com/HookemHeadlines/status/1687131762479001602

It sounds like the Longhorns have a lot of confidence that Brooks will be the starting running back for Sark and this offense heading into the regular season. Horns247 reported on Aug. 3 (paid content) that Brooks “is the bell cow” for Texas at running back ahead of the 2023 season.

It’s also worth noting that this Horns247 piece reports the “plan” as a one-two punch out of the backfield with Brooks and Baxter. The reported plan is for “Brooks to be the lead back” ahead of Baxter.

We know how important it is for Sark to have that bell cow back in his offense. Sark loves having those types of every-down backs that can set the tone in the zone running game.

Brooks gets the first-team reps on the first day of fall practice in offensive team drills

On the first day of fall practice, Brooks was second in the RB pecking order in the individual drills behind Keilan. But Brooks took the first-team reps out of the backfield with redshirt sophomore quarterback Quinn Ewers in the team drills on offense.

Behind Brooks in the running back pecking order in team drills was Robinson, who was paired with redshirt freshman quarterback Maalik Murphy. And then, Baxter and Blue filled in behind those two in team drills on Aug. 2.