The two toughest Texas Longhorns? According to Christian Jones, they're Charles Wright and Jaylan Ford
During his meeting with the media on Monday, Texas offensive lineman Christian Jones was asked who the two toughest members of the Texas Longhorns are.
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While one answer won’t come as much of a surprise, the other — and the first name that came to Jones’ mind — is someone who has seen the field on a handful of occasions in his UT career.
“Charles Wright, No. 1,” Jones said. “He works. He’s a grinder. Every single day, he’s in there. It’s easy to work hard when you’re the star guy, when you’re the No. 1 guy and everyone’s patting you on your back and you’re getting the positive and negative reinforcements. You really see what someone is made of they come to work every single day and they do it for the love and the passion of it. They know their role, and they do their job to their best extent.
“Whatever that is, Charles is always up there running. Whether it’s giving a look on scout team, being a linebacker, signaling in the play, sometimes getting a couple of reps in, staying extra. It’s 45-50 minutes after practice and he’s walking in with his shoulder pads, sweat dripping. That’s a testament to him. If we had a whole team of hims, we’d be undefeated. That’s definitely one that came to my mind.”
Wright has played in four career games and has not recorded any career statistics. A sophomore from Austin High, Wright is fourth on the quarterback depth chart.
Jones’ second choice was a more well-known player.
“Second one would have to be (Jaylan) Ford,” Jones said. “Same way, same thing as Charles.
“There’s a whole lot more examples. AD Mitchell, Casey Cain, even Jahdae (Barron). If we end practice in the morning, it’s 1:30 and I’m getting out of the shower. I thought I was doing something. They’re coming in from catching passes on the JUGS machine. Man, it’s 1:30! And Casey is like ‘oh hell yeah!’ AD is like ‘nah, it isn’t 1:30!’ It’s a long time!”
Those were the names that quickly came to mind, but Jones wanted to note there were a number of players who were worthy of praise.
“We’re lucky to have a group of physically and mentally tough people who work hard and work past adversity, not just after the first, second, and third failure, but who continue to show up and work every single day,” Jones said.
Texas will face Kansas State on Saturday at 11 a.m.
