3 takeaways from Day 1 of Texas spring practice
Texas football got out to Frank Denius Fields for the first day of spring practice on March 19. The highly-anticipated start of spring ball means that the Texas faithful got their first taste of spring practice reports and clips of some of the players for the first time this offseason.
The long-awaited first spring practice has finally arrived for Texas football
The media viewing window of the first spring practice lasted for around 20 minutes on March 19. In a longer than usual media viewing session, we got to witness some of the depth chart breakdowns regarding the pecking order of practice reps today and how the players were looking physically to begin camp.
Sarkisian was pretty happy with the way the first spring practice turned out for the Longhorns, which seemed evident with the longer media session at the end of the day.
Texas's head coach also praised the depth on this roster at the outset of spring camp.
"For us, this was a pretty good first day. I’m always hesitant to lay too much praise after one practice like I’m always a little hesitant to be too, too critical after one practice. I thought it was pretty evident the energy was really good out there at practice. It was pretty evident the amount of depth that we had. "
Here are three takeaways from the first day of spring practice for the Longhorns.
Texas's young defensive tackles look the part
Texas will be counting on some new faces along the defensive line this year. After losing top defensive tackles T'Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy II to the NFL Draft, seniors Alfred Collins and Vernon Broughton are next in line to be the top guys anchoring the defensive line this upcoming season.
New Texas defensive line coach Kenny Baker has also been hard on some of the younger rising defensive tackles to get their body right and in the right mindset early this offseason. He's already been pushing sophomore defensive tackle Sydir Mitchell, true freshman Alex January, and junior Jaray Bledsoe to take their games to the next level this year.
Inside Texas reported after the first spring practice on March 19 (paid content) that Mitchell looked "better than last year" with his frame and movement compared to what he looked like at this time last year.
However, two of the most impressive-looking defensive tackles, besides Collins and Broughton, were reportedly January and Bledsoe on the first day of spring practice. January "looked great" for it being his first spring practice as a true freshman on March 19. It sounds like January has his body right and is moving well in individual and group drills.
It's no surprise that Bledsoe looks just about as athletic as any of the defensive tackles early this spring. Bledsoe has reportedly filled out his frame to have more of that true defensive tackle build.
Baker and the Longhorns have the defensive tackle room in good shape entering the SEC in 2024. There could be a plethora of new contributors in the defensive line rotation this upcoming season with guys like Bledsoe and January looking good early in spring ball.