Steve Sarkisian shares which Texas players are standing out in spring practice

On3 imageby:Sam Gillenwater03/31/23

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Spring ball is every player’s first impression on their coaches at their respective programs. With that in mind, who’s catching eyes and earning chatter at Texas with the Longhorns making progress during spring practice?

Steve Sarkisian went on to name four players who fit that criteria during his press conference yesterday. First, he started with Kitan Crawford, a senior defensive back out of Tyler, Texas. After spending a lot of his opportunities on special teams, Sarkisian says Crawford is proving he can be a difference-maker for them in the secondary.

“I think one guy that stands out for me right now is Kitan Crawford. A tremendous special teams player for us a year ago. I think he was Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year. This guy was fantastic,” Sarkisian said. “He’s playing really well at safety for us right now. (Crawford) is communicating at a high level, he’s making plays on the ball, he’s playing fast, he’s definitely maturing. He’s one guy that stands out to me.”

Crawford is a former four-star and Top-15 corner in the 2020 class per On3’s Industry Ranking. Over his first three years at Texas, he has seen the field in 33 contests and totaled 43 tackles, two pass breakups, and a blocked field goal. Now, it seems he is primed to make a much larger impact in 2023.

From there, Sarkisian named three linemen, two offensive and one defensive, as his other standouts. On offense, sophomores DJ Campbell and Cameron Williams are holding things down. Meanwhile, he says junior defensive lineman Byron Murphy is wreaking havoc on the opposite side.

“Two guys that are in a healthy competition are DJ Campbell and Cam Williams,” said Sarkisian. “They’re both working hard on the offensive line and showing some positive things there.”

“And then the last guy that makes sense to me that has definitely shown up? And a guy that wasn’t a front-line starter for us a year ago but I think is kind of assuming that role of that guy is Byron Murphy on the defensive line,” Sarkisian added. “He’s been a force here early on in spring. You feel his presence, he’s tough to block. He creates a lot of negative plays and is really strong at the point of attack.”

Campbell was a five-star prospect and a Top-15 overall recruit coming out of the 2022 class. Williams, also a member of the ’22 class, was rated as a four-star prospect and a Top-250 player overall. In total, they combined to see action in 20 games with most of Williams’ snaps coming with the field-goal unit.

As for Murphy, he was ranked as a four-star prospect in the 2021 class. In his 25 career games at Texas, he has produced 39 tackles and three sacks.

Again, this time of the year is everyone’s opportunity to make themselves known to the staff. At this point, it seems Crawford, Campell, Williams, and Murphy are doing the best job of that with the Longhorns based on these shoutouts from Sarkisian.