Observations from the spring-ending Texas practice

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AUSTIN, Texas — The 15th and final spring practice for the Texas Longhorns took place on Saturday in front of fans at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium as head coach Steve Sarkisian opted against an Orange-White game for the second straight year due to depth issues along the offensive line, but the Longhorns did have a scrimmage portion of the open practice.

Along the offensive line, Jackson Christian and Kaden Scherer were both out due to injuries as Trevor Goosby and Andre Cojoe dressed but did not participate as they continue their rehab from surgeries. Transfer Melvin Siani also dressed but did not participate.

The theme continued across the team as Sarkisian and his staff took a cautious approach with other players returning from offseason surgeries, including quarterback Arch Manning, wide receivers Emmett Mosley V and Ryan Wingo, linebacker Ty’Anthony Smith, and safety Xavier Filsaime.

Quarterback Dia Bell only threw a few passes during routes against air, but didn’t participate in 7-on-7 or the full team periods, and Cam Coleman wasn’t on the scrimmage portion of practice, either.

With the absences along the offensive line and some team work in thud tempo, evaluating the running game was difficult, especially because the defense generally tackled effectively in live play and populated the football well. Early enrollee linebacker Kosi Okpala was particularly impressive against the run as a sure tackler until redshirt freshman running back Michael Terry III broke a tackle.

With questions continuing to swirl about Terry’s best position, the San Antonio product took fifth-team reps during drills and generally struggled breaking ankle tackles with his high center of gravity.

Early enrollee Derek Cooper scored one of the few touchdowns during the scrimmage portion on a short-yardage run.

For redshirt senior Arizona State transfer Raleek Brown, the most notable moment came on a kickoff when he broke a return up the sideline for a long gain.

Junior North Carolina State transfer running back Hollywood Smothers was lined up with Brown on the return.

With the limited participation of Manning and Bell, redshirt freshman quarterback KJ Lacey received plenty of opportunities, making an impressive throw to early enrollee wide receiver Jermaine Bishop for a touchdown up the seam, beating a linebacker and safety in coverage. Bishop consistently got open on Saturday as one of the team’s standouts until he got matched up against sophomore nickel back Graceson Littleton.

Lacey also threw a red-zone touchdown to sophomore wide receiver Daylan McCutcheon, who had another big gain from Lacey on a long-developing play and went to the ground for multiple catches.

As Texas went from drills to 7-on-7 to full team work, Lacey lived up to his reputation as a gamer who improves as situations get more game-like, including showing some decisiveness on when to take off and run, but experienced some struggles when the pocket was pushed into his face or bigger defenders were able to impact his throwing lanes. That’s the difficulty of Lacey’s listed height of 6’0.

And Bell’s limited participation made it difficult to evaluate the two young quarterbacks head to head, Lacey does seems to have a significant edge over redshirt senior transfer MJ Morris in the competition to back up Manning.

With some of the top wide receivers out, redshirt senior Wake Forest transfer Sterling Berkhalter took advantage of his opportunities. Typically an outside receiver in his career, Berkhalter was effective working from the slot and showed off strong hands to make multiple contested catches over the middle against good coverage.

At tight end, redshirt senior Michigan State transfer Michael Masunas showed some capability to be more than just an in-line blocker by flashing with his perimeter blocking in the wide receiver screen game, and redshirt junior Spencer Shannon, who doesn’t have a catch in his 265 career snaps on offense, caught two check downs from Lacey during the scrimmage portion.

Along the offensive line, redshirt freshman Texas A&M transfer right tackle Jonte Newman continued to show signs of his spring ascension and looked like he might be serviceable if Texas needs him this season and freshman left tackle John Turntine III looked quick and smooth in his pass sets with strong core strength during one-on-one drills against more experienced edge rushers like senior Brad Spence.

There weren’t as many defensive takeaways from the scrimmage beyond senior Pitt transfer linebacker Rasheem Biles looking as athletic and versatile as advertised, but senior Rutgers transfer cornerback Bo Mascoe looked extremely sticky in coverage to close a strong spring.

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