Texas Football: 3 true freshmen that stood out in Week 2 of fall practice

This weekend, Texas football and head coach Steve Sarkisian will get into the first scrimmage of fall camp. The first scrimmage of fall practice is always one of the most highly-anticipated events of training camp.

For the first time this fall, Texas players will get to prove themselves in some sort of simulated live-game action. This offers players amid key position battles for the Longhorns an opportunity to climb the depth chart and prove they deserve more live-game reps heading into the season.

This weekend’s first fall scrimmage will put an exclamation point on a busy week of training camp for the Longhorns. Texas also put full pads on for the first time in fall practice this week. The first full-pads practice of the fall camp took place on Aug. 8.

Texas already saw depth chart movement at key positions in fall practice this week. We also heard about some injury updates (including freshman DL Sydir Mitchell and junior WR Xavier Worthy). But some of the best notes and nuggets of Week 2 of fall practice came from the positive feedback regarding the younger players on the roster.

First-year players standing out for Texas football in Week 2 of fall camp

With that in mind, here’s a look at three true freshmen that stood out for the Longhorns in Week 2 of fall practice.

Colton Vasek, EDGE

Speaking of depth chart movement, a key true freshman that moved up the two-deep along the defensive front in practice this week was first-year edge rusher out of Austin Westlake High School Colton Vasek. Eric Nahlin of Inside Texas/On Texas Football reported during “On Texas Football Today” that Vasek took most of the second-team reps at buck in practice this week.

Vasek was the second-team buck in practice behind sophomore edge rusher Ethan Burke. This is a significant change on the depth chart at edge rusher, with Vasek supplanting sophomore Justice Finkley in the pecking order of practice reps at the position in Week 2 of training camp.

This comes after Burke took the first-team job at the buck position in spring ball over Finkley.

Vasek reportedly looks like an edge rusher with an “NFL future” in the early stages of training camp. The staff values his physical tools and natural pass-rush ability more than Finkley’s run-stopping ability.

Vasek will continue to be a true freshman to watch for the rest of fall camp. He added some necessary weight to start to fill out his frame during summer workouts, getting up to 6-foot-5 and 242 pounds. That’s more than 10 pounds heavier than what he weighed-in at when he arrived on campus before the start of spring ball.