Wednesday: Tinkering with the Texas offensive line
Texas offensive line coach Kyle Flood has one of the more difficult jobs on the team.
His offensive line room is not devoid of talent, even though it may not have a future All-American either. Rather, Flood must pick his top five from a group of six or seven that aren’t all that far apart in production.
Coming from Alabama, Flood’s predilection was to see if he could get the Longhorns bigger up front. That’s why Junior Angilau still gets a look at center despite Jake Majors being the more natural player at the position.
Yet I’m told Flood has started to come around on how all of the pieces fit, the who and the where. That didn’t come into focus until Derek Kerstetter returned for his final season after recovering from injury this spring.
Locking in Kerstetter at right tackle – not at center where Herb Hand tried to force the issue a year ago – has given Flood some certainty when he starts tinkering with his offensive line.
Now it’s pretty straight-forward. The battle at left tackle is between Christian Jones and Andrej Karic. Jones is currently winning that.
On the interior, Denzel Okafor is a typical Flood offensive guard. Perhaps Flood would like a player a bit quicker, but Okafor will suffice.
That really leaves the only true tinkering down to what Flood decides to do at center. Go with Jake Majors or insert Junior Angilau?
Majors played exceedingly well in action late in his true freshman year when taking over for the injured Kerstetter. Angilau is a returning multi-year starter at guard who is auditioning for the center spot as well.
Angilau can likely be more of an asset in power run situations than Majors at center. But is an Angilau-Tope Imade combo at center-guard better than the Majors-Angilau combination overall?
Based on what I’ve heard, early returns are kind of what we’d expect, although the lack of full team settings and contact scrimmages have yet to solidify the decision for the Texas offensive line.
As of now, it’s Majors at center with Angilau and Okafor working at guard, and Jones and Kerstetter at tackle.
But it’s important to remember this offensive line is not set in stone. Flood still wants to tinker in scrimmage situations.
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One more name to watch: I am told Keilan Robinson is performing as good as, or better than, expected. The former Alabama staff now on offense at Texas feel like Robinson could be a breakout player in this offense.
