The most important month in many second-year players careers

By this point, you’re tired of hearing about the month of September for the Texas Longhorns. For the casuals, it’s boring. Three straight freebies and a bye sandwiched between two of the most highly anticipated games of the year.

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But for many of the die-hard fans reading this, you know how important this month is for the Longhorns. At a baseline, there’s a lot that the most important players need to fix. The run game needs to be more consistent and explosive, receivers need to get open, Arch Manning’s everything.

Branching outward, you also know what it means in or around the margins. Four tight ends are gunning for a No. 2 spot, five different edge rushers feel they’re good enough to be the fourth in rotation, and Texas still needs answers at starting spots like left guard, CB2, and the return positions.

But when you look even deeper, you realize just how important these games are for the redshirt freshmen of this team.

I specifically point out the redshirt freshmen because they’re in a unique spot. Players like Brandon Baker and Alex January, who burned their redshirts last year, know that they’re important parts of the present and the future of this team. The freshmen are split into two categories: players who are going to be valuable this year, and players who are being given the chance to sit back and develop. Either way, there’s little to no pressure on them right now.

But there is no singular month more important for a player who wasn’t used last year and still isn’t on the two-deep this season. I’m not talking about the likes of Parker Livingstone and Xavier Filsaime, who are already playing meaningful snaps after a year on the sidelines. Not even Jordan Washington, Zina Umeozulu, or Christian Clark, whose paths to snaps are very clear both this year and next.

Last year, Texas was treated to flashes from Trevor Goosby that eventually gave them the confidence to play him in games against Texas A&M and Georgia. Now he’s a potential first-round pick.

A player can be pushed into redshirting for one of three reasons. You are either behind physically, mentally, or stuck in a tough situation with the players around you. For elite athletes like Filsaime and Livingstone, it was just about waiting a year behind better and more advanced players. For Washington and Umeozulu, it was a mix of all three, but they mainly just weren’t prepared for the level of play expected of players at an SEC level.

Melvin Hills is a player who needed to catch up physically. His high school measurements had him as a sub-280 DT. He’s now up to over 300. The problem for Hills is what’s ahead of him: January in the same class and five transfers, not to mention three higher-rated true freshmen. This is the month for Hills to prove he’s at least a top-six non-senior in this DT room. That means being better than both Josiah Sharma and Myron Charles, as well as the four incoming DT recruits. That’s a tall task.

Aaron Butler was a player who had struggled with the mental side of things. That’s not to say he’s a head case; he didn’t just get arrested like another fellow RS FR, but he’s not been able to get past drop issues in practice. He was physically up to par but had to wait his turn. Now, he’s MAYBE the No. 6 receiver on this team. With the best WR class in the nation coming in a year behind him, Butler needs to break ahead of the likes of Jamie Ffrench and Michael Terry in practice and on the field this month. Being the No. 8 receiver in the room entering your third year is a bad spot to be.

Santana Wilson is an odd case, as his weight has fluctuated at Texas. 175 entering, 190 in Year 1, now back to 175 in Year 2. The cornerback is, at best, the No. 5 in the room, and with the emergence of Graceson Littleton and the natural talent of Kade Phillips, he’s probably even lower. He needs to prove that he’s not a tier behind both of them and RS SO Warren Roberson, as those three and Kobe Black seem to be the outside cornerback options heading into 2026.

Lastly, Trey Owens needs a good month more than anyone else we’ve mentioned. He’s in an impossible situation. Texas has Manning, who may return for another year, and they added a transfer to compete for the No. 2 spot this year. Not to mention KJ Lacey and eventually Dia Bell breathing down his neck. With the No. 2 spot open, according to head coach Steve Sarkisian, this literally is a prove-it month. If Owens can secure the spot, he and the rest of the Longhorn sphere will have a lot more confidence in him as the successor to Manning long-term.

At this time of year, it’s very easy to overlook these types of players. The true freshman five-stars are flashy, and the players entering their first year of starting are the most intriguing to focus on against these lower-level teams. But when it really comes down to it, many of these players’ futures are secured in burnt orange. That’s not the case for some of the players mentioned above. It’s prove-it time in Austin.