3 Texas players losing position battles halfway through camp

We're now officially under two weeks away from the start of the 2024 regular season for Texas football. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has a couple of weeks remaining for fall practice before the season kicks off at DKR on Aug. 31 against Colorado State.

Late-fall practice depth chart movement could be had for a couple of positions for Texas football in the next week

The final weekend of fall practice for the Longhorns will feature more of a live-game walkthrough than a full-contact scrimmage. In the last couple of weekends of fall camp, the Longhorns went through two scrimmages. Although, last weekend's fall camp scrimmage was only live-tackling for the first half of it. The second half featured more of a "thud" level of contact in the scrimmage on Saturday.

Texas is readying up for its inaugural season in the SEC this fall. But before that time in Week 5 for the SEC opener against the Mississippi State Bulldogs in a little over one month from now, Texas has some big non-conference games to prepare for, namely the battle against Michigan in Ann Arbor in Week 2.

The Longhorns have the two-deep depth chart in the practice rotations on both sides of the ball set at most position groups in the second half of preseason camp. But there are still a handful of position battles working themselves out in the remaining weeks of fall practice until the season opener in 12 days.

Here are three players who have lost ground in their position battles for the Longhorns with only two weeks remaining in preseason camp.

Jay'Vion Cole, CB

Field corner was one of the biggest position battles in Texas's secondary entering preseason camp a few weeks ago. Senior Gavin Holmes and junior San Jose State transfer Jay'Vion Cole were the two defensive backs who were expected to compete for the starting job at field corner in fall camp.

While Holmes and Cole have competed for the starting reps at field corner in fall practice over the past few weeks for the Longhorns, senior Jahdae Barron and redshirt freshman Warren Roberson have also cross-trained at this spot in the secondary.

Inside Texas's Eric Nahlin reported on Aug. 19 (paid content) that Holmes has the momentum to be the No. 3 cornerback in the rotation on the defensive side of the ball entering the season, behind Barron and sophomore Malik Muhammad at the boundary spot. It sounds like Holmes held his own with a formidable secondary unit that did a great job preventing big plays in the last two scrimmages this fall camp.

What has impacted some of the two-deep clog on the depth chart at the field corner spot through the first half of preseason camp is the move for junior Jaylon Guilbeau to take the starting reps at nickel in practice and the two scrimmages. Texas's coaches have the freedom to move Barron over to cornerback with the starting group to put the best five defensive backs on the field with the first-team unit this fall camp with Guilbeau starting at the star position.

Cole is still battling to get a spot as a contributor at the cornerback position for the Longhorns entering the regular season in a couple of weeks. He is in a good spot to get the fourth corner spot behind Holmes if he finishes the second half of fall practice with a good level of understanding of the defensive schemes in the secondary and some good camp reps under his belt in practice.