Inside Texas Today: Walk-ons make switch to wide receiver for added depth
Welcome to Inside Texas Today! Each weekday morning, Inside Texas Today will provide the latest news and notes from around the Forty Acres, including notable events, analysis, and where to watch Texas Longhorns sports that day.
Here’s the Thursday, March 31, 2022 edition.
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From defensive back to wide receiver, at least for the time being
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian mentioned earlier in the spring that the Longhorns weren’t able to cross-train offensive linemen because of the low numbers at the position. Six of the seven linemen in the 2022 class are set to enroll in June, meaning those six aren’t currently practicing with the Longhorns in spring football.
A similar problem exists at wide receiver.
“The one thing that jumps out, and I know this is going to change dramatically come the fall, is we’ve just got a lot more depth on defense than we do offensively,” Sarkisian said Tuesday. “The majority of our mid-years were on the defensive side of the ball, so I’m monitoring our offense kind of as we go along. We don’t have a great deal of depth at wideout. We don’t have a great deal of depth on the offensive line obviously right now.”
The depth issues aren’t at the top of the Texas wide receiver depth chart, where players like Xavier Worthy, Marcus Washington, Jordan Whittington, and Isaiah Neyor are currently positioned. It’s in the third and fourth strings.
At Tuesday’s practice, walk-ons Thatcher Milton and Hamilton McMartin were working with the wide receivers despite being listed as defensive backs on the official Texas football roster. Gus Asel, whose last action on the football field was as a defensive back with Hendrix College, joined Texas as a walk-on during the winter and works with the wideouts.
Those converted defensive backs joined regular walk-on receivers Paxton Anderson and Parker Alford in Brennan Marion’s position group for the time being.
Signees Savion Red and Brenen Thompson don’t make it to campus to June. Help from the walk-on ranks is needed until they arrive on the Forty Acres.
With Jaden Alexis and Troy Omeire still not fully cleared for practice after injuries suffered during 2021’s preseason camp, the services of Milton, McMartin, and Asel were needed at receiver for the 15 spring practices.
“That part, just have got to monitor through four practices now as we go, and making sure we’re not just wearing these guys out,” Sarkisian said.
