3 important nuggets from Texas's Thursday fall practice

Jelani McDonald still fighting for first-team safety reps in team drills

It was widely reported last weekend that sophomore safety Jelani McDonald made some major progress in the two-deep depth chart in the secondary in practice. McDonald took first-team practice reps at safety in individual and team drills in the first day of camp with shoulder pads on last weekend.

Last weekend, he was working with redshirt junior Michael Taaffe with the first-team safeties in team drills.

McDonald has continued to work often with the first-team secondary in practice on defense this week. He reportedly took the first-team practice reps at safety in Thursday's full pads practice alongside senior safety Andrew Mukuba.

It's pretty clear that the defensive coaches are still trying to find the right combination of starting safeties for the first-team defense entering the regular season in a few weeks. McDonald has given the coaching staff a lot to think about to push him into a starting spot in the secondary for this upcoming season, given how much he's progressed physically and with his understanding of the defensive scheme since spring ball.

Texas is much deeper, with more capable and talented guys who can cover a lot of range in the secondary, at the safety position this fall than they were at this time with this group in 2023. McDonald, Mukuba, and Taaffe will all be involved in the safety rotation for Blake Gideon and Pete Kwiatkowski this fall, along with the talented sophomore Derek Williams Jr. and potentially true freshman Xavier Filsaime.