Running back injuries leave Longhorns short on one preseason goal

By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas football team, after a month of preparation in the summer heat and intense work on the field and in its meeting rooms, gets set to head into its final practices this week for the season opener Saturday night against Louisiana Tech at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

Much anticipation and high expectations surround the Longhorns, who enter play with a bevy of talented players and experience across the roster.

The Longhorns went into the preseason with[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] a stated set of goals for the workouts and have achieved many of those over the past 21 practices, which have been conducted both at the Wright Whittaker Sports Complex and at the Frank Denius Fields.

These Longhorns, who head to the season off a 10-win campaign in 2018 that ended with a win over Georgia in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, have been ranked 10th in the both the preseason Coaches’ Poll and Associated Press poll, and as high as fifth by Sports Illustrated.

Texas head coach Tom Herman said the top three on which his team needed to focus in its preseason practices were, in no specific order, “finding two cornerbacks that are trustworthy, getting the best 11 guys on defense on the field at the same time even if it is in different personnel packages, and running the football better with our tailbacks.”

Let’s take a look at the three areas in which the Longhorns put the most emphasis and how they stand with those goals in the runup to hosting the Bulldogs.

1. Finding two cornerbacks who are trustworthy
The Longhorns will need every one of their talented secondary unit to forge a successful season, but developing players to replace the ones lost to the NFL from last year’s 10-4 squad has been hugely important.

Texas has found four players — Jalen Green, Kobe Boyce, Anthony Cook and D’Shawn Jamison, each of whom is a sophomore — that fit the bill. Green and Boyce started at cornerback in UT’s final preseason scrimmage, but all four will see the field plenty this season, and especially in the opener next Saturday.

“Nobody has given us any signs that they can’t play at this level,” Texas defensive coordinator Todd Orlando said.

2. Getting the best 11 guys on the field on defense
Herman and Orlando both have crowed about unleashing defensive sets with as many as eight defensive backs in certain situations to create mismatch headaches for opposing quarterbacks, but it remains to be seen just how much smoke the Texas coaches are blowing. Both Herman and Orlando also have said they will not surrender size for speed, so it’s something that opponents may only see in small doses.

“You got guys who are traditionally DBs playing the post who are on the ends,” Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger said after practicing against the formation in the preseason. “You’ve got speed all over the place, so you can’t exploit any matchups. All our guys can run 4.4 or 4.3s (in the 40-yard dash). You’re not going to beat anybody with speed. So it really eliminates some stuff in the passing game.”

3. Running the football better with its tailbacks
Texas was on the way to securing this goal until senior running back Kirk Johnson and sophomore starter Keaontay Ingram were hurt in a three-day nightmare stretch in the first week of camp, and junior short-yardage back Daniel Young also went on the shelf 10 days before the season opener. That leaves true freshman Jordan Whittington as the last scholarship running back who could start the season healthy.

Whittington can fill the bill, and has been über-impressive since his early enrollment in January.

“He could probably go drive the bus tomorrow, too, if we asked him to,” Herman said about Whittington. “I’m amazed at how well he took to that position.

“Getting him out in space is to our advantage but there is also something to be said for running in between the tackles, making a safety miss and then there’s nobody left, and he can do all of that.”

Given the mandate Herman with which began the camp, we have to give the team a cumulative B-plus for reaching its preseason goals. If Ingram and Young (and maybe Johnson) can be back at full speed by the Longhorns’ looming showdown against LSU in Week 2, the grade can be adjusted upward a tick.
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