By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Editor
AUSTIN, Texas – When the Texas football team opened its preseason drills Aug. 2, one of the aspects of focus for head coach Tom Herman and his staff was getting more, and more consistent, production from his running backs.
In the matter of three days this week, the questions surrounding the Longhorns’ running backs have escalated into real concerns, thanks to [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]injuries to presumptive sophomore starter Keaontay Ingram and senior backup Kirk Johnson.
Still, Herman said the team is where it needs to be after a week and a half and just three workouts in full pads.
“I’m pleased at where we are at after nine practices,” Herman said. “Our overall effort level was promising. The last two practices have been really good.”
Johnson, the oft-injured-but-seemingly-back-on-track brother of senior wide receiver Collin Johnson, suffered a severely sprained shoulder on the just the second day of padded practice Wednesday and could miss as much as six weeks.
Then Ingram, who had bulked up in the off-season to help him with the load he is expected to carry as one of the team’s featured backs, “tweaked” his left knee Saturday during the Longhorns’ first scrimmage of the preseason and limped back to the bus in the Wright Whitaker Fields parking lot using a crutch.
Herman also said that sophomore safety Caden Sterns “rolled his ankle” during Saturday’s scrimmage. Sterns needed two crutches to get on the same bus as Ingram; there is no timeline yet for either player’s return to action.
Herman added that the on-field examinations on both Ingram and Sterns “looked promising. We will know more once we get both those guys (further) evaluated.”
The injuries to the running backs leave junior Daniel Young and true freshman Jordan Whittington as UT’s only healthy scholarship ball carriers as the team heads to the final 16 practices before it hosts Louisiana Tech Aug. 31 in the season opener.
If there are any more injuries, the Longhorns could turn to freshman wide receiver Jake Smith to do some work in the running back room as well.
“The guy we talk about is Jake, but [would that] be fair with his development at ‘H’ receiver to have him doing a lot at third-string tailback just to spell people,” Herman explained. “We’ve got a couple of walk-on guys that know the offense have been doing really well, but this will be something we will have to look at if this lingers into the season.”
Another of UT’s stated areas of focus in the preseason is the play of its cornerbacks. Herman said the group was “up and down” in the scrimmage, which the coaches implored the team to play at game intensity.
“They’ve done well in run support and they’ve caught some 50-50 balls, but I think they need to do a better job of playing the ball in the air,” Herman said. “Assignment-wise they are doing well.”
Herman, echoing the comments from defensive coordinator Todd Orlando a day before, talked Saturday about the utilization of a formation that could see as many as eight defensive backs on the field in certain situations this season.
It’s all about getting the best 11 players in the game at the same time as much as possible, but the Longhorns will still spend plenty of time in their standard 4-2-5 set.
“You want to talk about looking like Star Wars for some of these quarterbacks?” Herman said about using eight defensive backs. “That’s a fun toy to have. I don’t know how we would survive in the run game with 200-some-pound guys setting the edges, so we’ve been in some discussions about how and when we are going to use some of these packages.”
If the Longhorns had to play a game right now, Herman said he would send out Samuel Cosmi at left tackle, freshman Junior Angilau at left guard, Zach Shackelford at center, Derek Kerstetter at right guard and Denzel Okafor at right tackle. He added that UT has six offensive lineman in the top group that also includes Georgia Tech graduate transfer Parker Braun.
Herman finished his media availability Saturday an answering a question about his “biggest” concern right now.
“It’s our youth on defense,” he said. “They are really talented but have to mature emotionally, mature from an assignment standpoint. We are getting great effort on that side of the ball, but it’s just practice No. 9.”
Texas will have another week of workouts at the Wright Whitaker Complex next week before moving to Frank Denius Fields on campus to finish its preparation for Louisiana Tech.
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [habeabk] [/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.