3 takeaways from Texas football’s first week
of fall practice
[W]hile we didn’t have much in the way of insight into the leaders in some prospective position battles in fall camp during the first week, we’re starting to see some of those processes play out.
It will be difficult to keep Kelvin Banks off the field out of the gates this season
Offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Kyle Flood and the Longhorns opted to give the most experienced offensive linemen most of the first-team reps in the first couple of days of fall practice this week. But in the last 48 hours, we’ve started to see Flood and this staff budge more in terms of sliding up some of these talented and potent freshmen to get more second and/or first-team reps in practice.
One particular true freshman that Texas fans are keen on is the former elite five-star recruit and Summer Creek offensive tackle product Kelvin Banks. From what we’ve heard and seen in the first week of fall practice, Banks definitely looks the part.
It will also help Banks’ case that most of the returns from the first week of fall practice indicate that he’s fairing better than the likes of sophomore offensive tackle Andrej Karic and super senior Christian Jones.
I’d imagine that, with the way things are trending now in fall practice, Banks will make it very difficult for Flood to keep him off the field at offensive tackle right from the get-go this season.
Ovie Oghoufo is the x-factor among the linebackers
[A] player that will have a huge say in the effectiveness of the Texas linebacker corps this fall is the former Notre Dame Fighting Irish transfer and senior Ovie Oghoufo. We know that Overshown and Ford are going to make an impact on this defense at the linebacker position this fall. That leaves the likes of Oghoufo and former FCS All-American transfer Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey as the potential wildcards at the position.
Moreover, it sounds like Oghoufo is quietly making some necessary strides to become a more effective pass-rusher throughout this offseason. Oghoufo has apparently won some of the battles in practice in pass-rushing drills that he wasn’t doing so commonly last year.
He posted the worst pass-rushing grade of his collegiate career last season and came up with fewer than two sacks. That was especially detrimental to the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of Texas’ pass rush last year given that Oghoufo took more than 150 snaps as a pass rusher.
Isaiah Neyor and Xavier Worthy could be the top WR duo in the Big 12
This might fall into the bucket as an overreaction coming out of the first week of fall practice. But it doesn’t seem out of the realm of reality that Texas could boast the best wide receiver duo in the Big 12 in 2022 between star sophomore Xavier Worthy and the former Wyoming Cowboys redshirt sophomore transfer Isaiah Neyor.
All we’ve heard coming out of fall practice thus far is how effective this wide receiver duo of Neyor and Worthy can be. These are usually the first two names we hear about when talking about the standout Texas wideouts coming out of summer workouts and in the early phases of fall camp.
We continue to hear that Neyor is commonly winning battles on one-on-one drills in practice and seven-on-seven work. The 6-foot-3 and 215-pound outside receiver is going to be a load for opposing defenses to deal with at the z this season.
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