Here is part of Jeff Howe's take on the decade+ old OT issue at Texas, that I was addressing above. I forgot about Webb
".... It's getting harder and harder to find high school tackles who are athletic enough to handle speed athletes on the edge, physical enough to consistently take care of business in the run (good luck finding elite-level tackles who are comfortable in a three-point stance) and have the mindset to work to get better now that the competition is unlike any they’ve seen before from a size and talent standpoint. That’s why when a prospect like Walker Little, the 2017 five-star offensive tackle from Houston Bellaire Episcopal who’s now at Stanford, comes along, losing him is a blow because any backup option will likely need a year or two in a player development program to figure out what’s there with the crop of top-flight tackles having been picked over by that point.
Texas has had a problem recruiting offensive tackles for the last decade because the Longhorns have failed more often than not to go one of the two ways a program has to in order to solidify the tackle positions. That’s to either land top-tier prospects like and give them the tools they need to hit their ceiling or look for guys like Connor Williams who have the raw tools and project to be possibly elite players down the road. Aside from Williams, who was clearly a good take and panned out on his way to becoming an NFL draft pick, Texas’ tackle takes over the last decade have either not panned out because of injuries (Paden Kelley, Josh Cochran) or discipline-related issues (Kennedy Estelle), they kicked inside (Kent Perkins, Mason Walters) or they just couldn’t cut the mustard.
That’s changing under Herman with the Longhorns showing the ability and willingness to travel both roads in search of tackles. Texas snagged a pair of intriguing tackle options for down the road in Reese Moore and Christian Jones in 2018. They’re on campus right now and will be joined at this time next year by 2019 five-star prospect Tyler Johnson on Conroe Oak Ridge, who for my money is the best pure tackle prospect Texas has landed since J'Marcus Webb in 2006 (Webb played one season at Texas, transferred to West Texas A&M, was a seventh-round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft and played in 71 games over seven seasons in the NFL).
I wrote recently how the staff can start turning the page along the offensive line now that Williams has broken the unsavory 10-year streak of not having had a lineman drafted at a time when Herb Hand has come along to hopefully be the teacher and developer of talent the Longhorns need to get things in order. Getting a commitment from Johnson is a big part of that process, so too is the Longhorns closing on Houston North Forest four-star tackle Javonne Shepherd, a recruitment where Texas appears to have the edge.
One or two tackles isn’t good enough when you’re talking about fixing a gap in the talent pipeline that’s gone unresolved for the better part of a decade. Texas can’t get in a bind like the offense was last season when Williams went down and there was nothing in the ballpark of a reliable option to step in for him. When Texas, as a program, gets to the point where the loss of one player doesn’t cripple an entire side of the ball, it will be a sign that the Longhorns have arrived at a point being able to tout talented depth up and down the roster. That hasn’t happened in a very long time, but it’s slowly starting to take shape within a position group where the Longhorns needed it in a bad way for far too long...."
https://247sports.com/college/texas...-I-Think-Tom-Herman-Roschon-Johnson-118829113