Texas officially concluded its spring practice schedule for 2026 with Saturday's Fan Day festivities. Though nobody really disappointed in the spring, quite a few Longhorns stood out above the rest over the past two months.
The whole "position battle" aspect will most likely carry over into fall camp, but a handful of Longhorns undoubtedly gained some ground with the team regarding their overall ability.
Let's take a look at five players whose stock rose the most this spring.
TE Spencer Shannon
Shannon gained about 10 lbs. of muscle since the end of the 2025 season, and he absolutely killed it this spring. Not only has he been one of the best blockers in the tight end room, but he's been catching the ball pretty well too.
It got to the point where Shannon was rolling out with the starting offense a few times during the team portions of practice, ahead of both Nick Townsend and incoming transfer Michael Masunas.
QB K.J. Lacey
Lacey isn't here just because of the number of reps he got while Arch Manning was out recovering. He looked borderline amazing this spring, especially on deep balls. His accuracy on short-to-intermediate routes was surprisingly good as well, and it's obvious that he's been working really hard this offseason.
He has a much, much bigger arm than he's been getting credit for, and if he has to step in for Arch at any point in 2026, I don't think the coaching staff is going to be devastated.
OT Jordan Coleman
Nobody predicted seeing Jordan Coleman as the starting left tackle this spring with Trevor Goosby out, but he was. He made the coaching staff feel comfortable enough to kick the usual backup left tackle, Jaydon Chatman, inside to left guard with Laurence Seymore unavailable.
His size (6'5", 354 lbs.) and athletic profile have been on full display this spring in both phases of the game, and if he continues on this path, it'll be hard for him to be unseated as the LT2 heading into 2026.
LB Justin Cryer
The incoming transfer from Florida State was originally projected to be a core special teamer and possible sub-package contributor for Texas in 2026.
Fast forward to now, and he's been basically running with the first-team defense at MIKE. Though this could be somewhat attributed to Ty'Anthony Smith being out for spring, Cryer's size and surprising speed might help him stay in the mix to start heading into fall camp.
WR Jermaine Bishop Jr.
Bishop Jr. was one of the Longhorns' top recruits in the 2026 class, and it wasn't neccessarily a secret that he was going to be good early on in his career.
With that being said, he hasn't just been "good", he's been the offense's top receiver outside of Cam Coleman from a consistency standpoint this spring. Very few members of Texas' receiver room have the stop/start ability that Bishop has, and there's a very good chance that he'll be a top 4-5 option at wide receiver for Texas in 2026.
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