Catalon, Holmes bring ‘needed’ experience to Texas secondary
Texas’ reputation as “DBU” helped it land two sought-after defensive backs in the transfer portal heading into the 2023 season. It’s expected that cornerback Gavin Holmes from Wake Forest and safety Jalen Catalon from Arkansas will help bolster a stout secondary unit that loses two starters from the Longhorns’ 8-5 campaign of 2022.
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“You love experience in the back end, and we felt like that was something we needed,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday at his first press conference of spring drills.
Holmes started 14 games over the past two seasons for Wake Forest and played in 28 contests since 2020. He amassed 46 tackles (36 of them solo), 13 pass breakups, two forced fumbles, and two interceptions in his three years in Winston-Salem, N.C.
“Gavin was a high-level player at Wake Forest – you see his confidence already on the field,” Sarkisian said Monday.
Holmes will join Ryan Watts, Austin Jordan, Terrance Brooks, and freshman Malik Muhammad in the corner rotation. The room lost a starter in D’Shawn Jamison.
Catalon was a standout player in the secondary for the Razorbacks when he was healthy, and that’s been an issue with him. He played for Arkansas for parts of four seasons, participating in 21 games with 16 starts, racking up 159 tackles (81 of them solo stops), 3.5 tackles for loss, five interceptions, 14 passes defended, and three forced fumbles.
His best game may have been against Texas in 2021, when he produced eight tackles and a pass breakup in Arkansas’ 40-21 home victory over the Longhorns.
But he’s been hampered by shoulder injuries the past two seasons and is in the process of fully recovering from his latest injury.
“Catalon is natural leader,” Sarkisian explained. “We’re in winter conditioning and he’s coaching guys on the side on specific drills and why we’re doing those drills. That’s what we’re hopeful that we will be getting – a little bit more vocal in the back end and a little bit more confident player to play the style that we want to play.”
Catalon will join a safety room that sports Jerrin Thompson, Kitan Crawford, Michael Taaffe, and BJ Allen and will be bolstered even more when freshmen Derek Williams and Warren Roberson reach the 40 Acres in the summer.
Anthony Cook is gone from the safety room after playing 60 games over five seasons and producing 167 tackles (105 of them solo), 2.5 sacks, 11 passes defended, three forced fumbles and a recovered fumble.
Sarkisian said Monday that he likes the depth of his team and lauded his staff for managing the roster from a numbers perspective.
“Sometimes you’d like to be a little older at some positions and what that looks like,” he added. “There’s a whole other second transfer portal that not only can affect us positively but can affect us negatively, too. So we have to be mindful of that.
“I don’t want to say that our roster is set in stone, because I don’t know what might happen here in a couple months. We’ll continue to evaluate – it’s probably a little too soon, to be fair, to judge these guys off of one practice that not in pads. But I like our team and I like our depth.”
Texas will have 13 more practices in the spring period leading up to the annual Orange-White Game on April 15 in Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
