OUInsider - Owen Field

--a few stories on their open practices last weekend... it's a long way until Fall, but it sounds like they have some work to do.

Bohls: UT receiving position in good hands

By Kirk Bohls
American-Statesman Staff

Longhorns wide receivers looked stellar on Friday. Absolutely stellar.

And their returning top receiver wasn’t even on hand. Senior Mike Davis, who led Texas last season in yardage, touchdowns and occasionally disappearing acts, was absent to attend to a family matter, but will be back Saturday.

Even so, they were magical without the guy who calls himself Magic.

The receivers flat. Tore. It. Up. All of them.

The quarterbacks throwing to them? Not so much. They weren’t awful, just inconsistent.

David Ash, the incumbent and clear No. 1 quarterback, was wildly erratic, which was not a good sign given the fact the Longhorns are hoping he will be equal parts Colt McCoy and Vince Young. He was neither Friday, throwing behind and over receivers consistently, although he did thread a sweet touchdown pass to Kendall Sanders between two defensive backs in the red zone.

Ash has to be reliable if Texas hopes to be any good at all. He just did not look sharp. Neither did any of the other quarterbacks on a consistent basis. Freshman Tyrone Swoopes, he of the 6-5, 250-pound build, needs tons of work on his delivery and footwork and looks very, very raw — as one would expect of a true freshman three months out of high school. Jalen Overstreet had some nice moments and has a strong arm, but fumbled an exchange with Joe Bergeron in 7-on-7 drills and made a horrible throw in the red zone. Case McCoy still has his nice touch and suspect arm and will be on call if Texas trails Kansas again. Connor Brewer was OK.

Put your hope into Sanders, who looks every bit the real deal with soft hands, good routes and great body control to shield himself against defenders. He turned in the catch of the day with a falling-down, 180-degree swivel reception of a pass from Swoopes and replicated it later in the 2 1/2-hour practice at Royal-Memorial Stadium. He caught everything thrown to him.

Cayleb Jones, who looks bigger and more confident, had a few drops but also several terrific, over-the-shoulder catches to flash some very good potential. Bryant Jackson and the redshirted Marcus Johnson also had strong days.

With Marquise Goodwin gone and with Jaxon Shipley and Davis making 116 of the team’s 268 catches last season, Texas desperately needs a reliable third wideout. That should come from Sanders, Jones or Jackson, a trio who combined for just 12 receptions last fall. They looked ready to show up on Friday.

I can’t see wide receiver being a problem area in the fall. Let’s see if anyone can get the ball close enough to them to matter.

- See more at: http://www.statesman.com/news/sports....6Hf35KYg.dpuf

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Golden: Simply solid, not necessarily star, linebackers would do the trick

By Cedric Golden
American-Statesman Staff

So I went to Royal-Memorial Stadium for a spring football practice, and judging from the fan count, a UT basketball game broke out.

All jokes aside — and it’s a joke that just over 1,000 fans ventured out to watch their football team practice — the Horns are confronting a major problem this spring.

Tackling.

And more tackling.

Did I mention that they’ve been working on tackling?

Now whether or not they solve the problem in time for the fall is another story.

Of course we know all understand that the best laid plans don’t always pan out, but give Mack Brown credit for publicly addressing the biggest issue that affected his defense last season. The 2012 Horns were a woeful tackling team, and Manny Diaz’s defense rarely sent a consistent message to opposing offenses that treading in Austin would be the toughest in the conference.

In a league not exactly known for stellar defense, Texas fielded the worst of Brown’s tenure.

So the goal should be clear. Someone needs to get hit in the mouth this fall, and if it’s going to be a successful 2013, that someone had better be wearing something other than burnt orange. Too often last season, offenses ran up and down the field against the nation’s 67th-ranked defense. Big plays from the opposition sometimes came about not because of extraordinary talent but because Texas players whiffed despite being in position to make the tackle.

It begins and ends with the linebacker position, which I believe to be the backbone of any good defense. After Jordan Hicks was hurt in the third game, the backbone was pretty much snapped in half. The secondary was forced to take on a more physical persona with the lack of experience at backer.

And if not for versatile safety Kenny Vaccaro, things would have been a lot worse. Now with Vaccaro gone, Brown no longer has that safety blanket in the secondary.

The message is clear to these linebackers: put your man on the ground or come over and stand next to the coach.

“We have to tackle better at linebacker and have to tackle better in the secondary,” Brown said after Saturday’s practice. “We’re working really hard on it because this league has become a space league.”

By that, he means Big 12 offenses have become more adept at getting the ball to their best players in the open field, where one missed tackle can lead to a big play.

Texas has talent at the position, and there’s some healthy competition for starting jobs, particularly in the middle where Dalton Santos is getting first-team reps ahead of 2012 starter Steve Edmond. Santos, who has slimmed down from 256 pounds to 235, became a fan favorite last year with his helmet-rattling tackles on special teams, and Brown said at one point he needed to give the former Van Vandal a chance to vandalize on defense.

He’s getting it now.

While Edmond did have one of Saturday’s defensive highlights when he blasted running back Joe Bergeron on the goal line, Santos has carried himself like a starter from most accounts. He looks the part of a lean, mean, tackling machine.

“He has really worked hard to lose his weight, and he’s forcing Steve to do the same,” Brown said. “They’re in a really good battle right now. I think Steve’s at a different place with his intensity than he was this time last year, and Dalton has helped that. They’re best friends, they pick at each other every day and they’re fighting for playing time.”

Brown isn’t happy with the assorted ailments that have caused some to miss practice time, including Hicks (sore hamstring) and Tevin Jackson (sore foot), but all in all, he seemed pretty chipper after the sixth practice. He had big praise for human missile Peter Jinkens, who will be fun to watch this year if he and the athletic Kendall Thompson pick up where they left off at the end of last season.

No one is asking for the next Derrick Johnson — linebackers like him don’t grow on trees. Just some solid play at ‘backer would suffice. It will solve a lot of problems and open up some strategic possibilities in the secondary, which should be the strength of this defense.

“We’re going to hit all spring and it’s going to be physical,” Brown said. “We’re going to work on tackling all spring, and the toughest ones are going to come out of this.”

The future is actually bright for these linebackers.

If they tackle.

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Observations from Texas Longhorns football practice

By Trey Scott / Texas Special Contributor
Dallas Morning News

Emptying the notebook after Texas’ open practice …

The quick tempo was noticeable, as the offense began practice moving down the field (against air) with a rough average of nine seconds between whistle and snap, barring any alterations at the line.

The backup situation is murky. Case McCoy, Connor Brewer, Jalen Overstreet and Tyrone Swoopes are jockeying to be David Ash’s No. 2. It’s tough to glean too many observations in an informal practice setting, but Overstreet was behind on several of his throws, while Brewer was accurate but with little zip on his ball. Swoopes has several mechanical issues — shaky footwork and a 3/4 throwing release — that Major Applewhite will need to work out. McCoy, the presumable No. 2 heading into camp, didn’t many reps on 7-on-7, although that might have just been the coaches trying to get the other quarterbacks, who have never taken a college snap, more comfortable.

Brewer got second-team reps in 11-on-11.

The difference between Ash and the other quarterbacks is stark, but there are still throws the rising junior is having trouble making, specifically the corner-endzone fade.

Mike Davis was back at practice after being absent Friday while dealing with family matters. Cayleb Jones and Kendall Sanders are jockeying to be the third wideout in the starting set along with Davis and Jaxon Shipley. Sanders is a much better route runner than Jones, but Jones is a more natural receiver with better ball skills. Shipley had a nice catch against Adrian Phillips on a double-move.

Tight end Greg Daniels, the converted defensive lineman, flashed nice hands on several consecutive seam routes. A good blocker, he’s the likely starter heading into the fall.

Two months later, the defensive backs are still struggling to bring down the ball-carrier on first attempt. Against the walk-ons, Duke Thomas had to re-do a drill because Duane Akina didn’t like his tackling form, Kevin Vaccaro whiffed and both Carrington Byndom and Quandre Diggs showed poor form. Leroy Scott was the best form tackler in the drill.

Vaccaro wasn’t good in pass coverage and neither was safety Mykkele Thompson. Byndom and Diggs were.

Safety Adrian Colbert chased down Daje Johnson on a speed sweep.

Adrian Phillips had the hit of the day, blowing up Sanders on a screen play.

In a nickel formation, Dalton Santos and Peter Jinkens were the first-team linebackers in the absence of Jordan Hicks (hamstring strain). Diggs moved into the slot and Sheroid Evans took Diggs’ sport at corner in the nickel. Evans made a nice play in coverage, batting away a ball intended for Davis in the end zone.

Chris Whaley and Malcom Brown were the starting defensive tackles in 1s vs. 1s.

Redshirt freshman Bryce Cottrell, from Plano, got reps at defensive end in place of Jackson Jeffcoat, who is still limited after undergoing pectoral surgery last season. Cedric Reed is the smart bet to replace Alex Okafor.

Most of the crowd consisted of children from the Explore UT camp.

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Offensive Observations: Saturday

Jeff Howe
Hookem.com

David Ash seemed more dialed in today as opposed to yesterday. He had a couple of off-target throws during individual drills with the wide receivers, but he settled in during one-on-ones and 7-on-7s.

He seemed much more comfortable throwing the football with Mike Davis back on the practice field. I was told all the way back to last spring that Ash seemed to have built a better rapport with Davis as opposed to any of the other receivers. It showed as Ash connected with Davis on a few deep balls that were similar to the throws that scored against Texas Tech and Iowa State last season.

Ash didn't blow me away, but I left feeling better about his performance than I did from his Friday showing.

*****

In regards to the other quarterbacks I felt Case McCoy performed like the No. 4 quarterback on the roster today. He was off-target all day in individual work with the receivers and lacked zip throwing the ball outside of the hash marks during live periods.

Connor Brewer got more work on Saturday than I'd heard about him getting or saw him get in the previous five practices. He delivered a nice strike to Bryant Jackson in 7-on-7s. We didn't see a ton of Tyrone Swoopes throwing the football as most of his passes were either checkdowns to the backs or screens.

Jalen Overstreet didn't see much time other than during individual drills. He took a back seat to Swoopes and Brewer today.

*****

I really liked how much Major Applewhite and Larry Porter stressed ball security with the quarterbacks and running backs. Players would have to run through the gauntlet, have Porter nail them with the big pad to try and knock the ball loose, and then have Applewhite take a shot at them with Muhammad al-li – Applewhite's broom handle with a boxing glove attached to the end of it.
Malcolm Brown

In the previous Longhorn practices I've observed I've never seen this done.

*****

Mack Brown talked about the desire to get Malcolm Brown and Johnathan Gray on the field at the same time. We saw some of that day in 11-on-11 with a three-wide, two-back look featuring Brown lined up at fullback and Gray as the tailback.

That works because Brown looks like the best blocker among the tailbacks. He stoned Dalton Santos during a blitz pickup drill, meaning he's capable of owning perhaps the best linebacker on the team at coming downhill and delivering a pop.

Brown had a couple of good runs during live periods, including a big run where he got wide around the left end. Gray also continued to shine, breaking a long run after he broke an ankle tackle around the line of scrimmage.

Joe Bergeron again looks like the No. 3 running back on the roster and looks like he'll be relegated to backing up Brown and Gray and short yardage/goal line duty. Bergeron scored once during the goal line period as he followed Mason Walters into the end zone on a trap play.

*****

Mike Davis looks like he's carried the confidence he found midway through last season with him into spring football. Whereas previous spring practices we'd see him stay with the pack and wait for him to do something to separate himself from everyone else, he's now setting the tone for the receiver group with his effort and execution along with Jaxon Shipley.
Mike Davis

Mike Davis seemed to give the offense a lift on Saturday.

Shipley made a great catch in 11-on-11 over Kevin Vaccaro from Case McCoy and Davis hauled in a deep route down the sideline that Ash dropped in between Duke Thomas and Adrian Colbert.

Kendall Sanders wasn't as prevalent in the offense with Davis back on the field, but he's as close to being on par with Davis and Shipley as anyone else in terms of body control and the ability to high-point the football. Cayleb Jones, aside from a great catch against Sheroid Evans in one-on-ones, had a quiet day.

Even when you consider than Bryant Jackson and John Harris made meaningful contributions in live periods and Marcus Johnson continues to get plenty of work, it was another good day for Darrell Wyatt's group.

*****

A lot of time was spent early in practice working the tight end dump pass to Greg Daniels. Daniels isn't a terrible receiving option, and seems as though the coaches want to see how far he can come as a receiver since he is the best blocking tight end on the team.

M.J. McFarland had a quiet day, and worked again in live periods with his hand on the ground an in motion as at H-back. Geoff Swaim also got some work in the two-tight sets but wasn't a factor in the passing game.

Miles Onyegbule looked overmatched as a blocker in individual drills against the linebackers. The bottom line is none of the tight ends appeared to do anything exceptional.

The group appears as though it'll succeed depending on either Daniels' emergence as a receiver or McFarland's emergence as a blocker.

*****

After a less than stellar performance on Friday, Mason Walters came back with a good practice on Saturday. In addition to leading Bergeron into the end zone on the goal line he performed much better in one-on-one pass pro drills and he was consistent from start to finish.

Kennedy Estelle has some great physical tools, and while he struggled in pass pro against Cedric Reed and Shiro Davis he battled all day. Sedrick Flowers also had a better practice today than he did on Friday, battling and beating Malcom Brown in two straight pass pro reps.

Donald Hawkins helped set the edge on a long run by Malcolm Brown. Overall the first team offensive line was more consistent as a unit. They still have their moments where they'll allow a big play in the backfield, but there weren't very many of those tallied on the account of the first group on Saturday.

There wasn't much to write home about with the second group, other than the fact that Curtis Riser continue to show that he might be in a position to be a factor in the rotation this fall. Other than Riser, I still didn't see anyone capable of contributing from the second line as it was on Saturday.