Texas Football: 3 biggest remaining position battles heading into season

Field CB

Candidates: Gavin Holmes, Terrance Brooks

The biggest remaining position battle that could still see movement at the starting spot heading into the season is field cornerback. Redshirt junior Wake Forest transfer Gavin Holmes and sophomore Terrance Brooks will duke it out for the starting job at field corner heading into the season.

Brooks was the presumed starter at field corner at the conclusion of training camp early this week. But Holmes keeps pushing Brooks for the starting reps at the position thanks to the speed and one-on-one coverage skills he displayed in camp.

Holmes hasn’t let off the gas in his pursuit to win the starting job at field corner a little over one week before the regular season opener against Rice. We mentioned on the site that Holmes is “making a spirited push to start” at field corner opposite redshirt junior starting boundary CB Ryan Watts.

In the last couple of weeks, it was reported that Holmes “has tightened the race” with Brooks for the starting field corner spot.

Regardless of who wins the starting job at field corner, Holmes and Brooks will get significant live-game reps in the secondary this season. Holmes and Brooks have different strengths, so each will match up with some wideouts better than others.

Holmes is the fastest of the top four Texas corners (including Watts and true freshman Malik Muhammad), so he is better at covering the deep ball and some of the quicker wideouts in the Big 12. Meanwhile, Brooks is very assignment-sound and has a good read on the ball. Brooks is also the bigger of the two field corners in the race to win the starting job in terms of muscle mass at 6-foot and 200 pounds (compared to Holmes at 5-foot-11 and 177 pounds).