Texas Football: Alfred Collins stands out in Saturday fall practice

A major question mark for Texas football heading into fall camp was the depth along the defensive line. Texas has a solid starting duo at defensive line between junior Byron Murphy II and redshirt senior T’Vondre Sweat. Beyond the duo of Murphy and Sweat, though, there aren’t any proven starters in the defensive line rotation.

Now, I’m not saying there aren’t any talented defensive linemen behind Murphy and Sweat on the depth chart that can impact this fall. What I am saying is that guys on the depth chart behind Murphy and Sweat, such as senior Alfred Collins, junior Vernon Broughton, true freshman Sydir Mitchell, and even senior Minnesota transfer Trill Carter, still have something to prove in fall camp to lock down their spots in the DL rotation heading into the season.

Texas football DL Alfred Collins turning a corner in fall camp?

Collins is probably the most talented of any of the defensive linemen on the roster for the Longhorns this fall. This season, he has an opportunity to prove that he can live up to the hype as a former five-star recruit coming out of high school.

Although, it sounds like Collins got off to a bit of a slow start in fall camp earlier this week. There were some questions concerning effort and consistency for Collins to start fall camp this week.

However, Collins could be changing that narrative after the first few practices of fall camp. It sounds like Collins had the best effort and performance of any of his showings in fall practice to date in the fourth day of drills on Aug. 5.

Bobby Burton of Inside Texas/On Texas Football reported during the “Longhorn Livestream” on YouTube on Aug. 6 that Collins had his best day of fall practice to date on the night of Aug. 5.

Burton was critical of Collins’ effort and consistency in the first three days of fall practice. And it seems like that criticism is justified given how long it’s taken for Collins to develop during his time at Texas the last few years.

"“The biggest news for me out of what I got on Saturday night was that Alfred Collins played extremely well. He may end up being a force after all.”"

If what Burton reported about Collins’ showing at practice on Saturday night, it could indicate that the talented senior defensive lineman is finally charting the right course.

Collins gets second-team reps at DL in the first week of fall practice

Collins is already getting his shot to make an impact ahead of the start of the 2023 season, getting the second-team defensive line reps in the first week of fall practice alongside Broughton. If Collins can continue to show more consistency in fall practice from here on out, he could easily nail down that second-team spot in the defensive line rotation heading into Week 1 on Sep. 2 against the Rice Owls.