2 Texas players who moved to RB in Tuesday's fall practice

Ryan Niblett

Per OTF's Gerry Hamilton and Bobby Burton, redshirt freshman wide receiver Ryan Niblett is one of the two Longhorns players who were moved positions in Tuesday's practice to take reps at running back. Niblett was reportedly the fifth running back in line among the scholarship players for the Longhorns taking reps out of the backfield in team drills on Aug. 13.

As expected with a player taking their first reps at running back a couple of weeks into preseason camp after spending the last 18 months at wideout, Niblett had some issues with ball security in practice. It sounds like Niblett displayed good quickness and hands out of the backfield in practice yesterday.

But working on ball security is Niblett's top task for the remainder of this fall camp in individual drills from the backfield.

The 5-foot-10 and 185-pound Niblett does bring excellent speed, reliable hands, and good field vision in space to the table for Texas at running back. I think there are at least a couple of different and creative ways Sarkisian can get Niblett involved with the ball in his hands with things like jet sweeps and motion in and out of the backfield pre-snap on offense.

It's noteworthy that moving Niblett to running back makes sense from both a developmental perspective and the overall depth and bodies in the backfield entering this upcoming season in the SEC. Niblett will probably get more reps at running back in live-game action on offense after the injuries to the RB room for the Longhorns than he would at wide receiver, given the plethora of depth and talented guys at wideout for Sarkisian.