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    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — Jonah Williams punctuated his first series of the 2026 baseball season by taking a chance that had Jim Schlossnagle, Steve Sarkisian and anyone else with a stake in the two-sport standout’s future on the Forty Acres holding their breath.
    With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning of Sunday’s 4-0 win over Michigan State at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, Williams popped the first pitch he saw from reliever Brady Chambers into left field. When center fielder Trent Rice lost track of the ball, allowing it to fall to the turf for a base hit, Williams bolted for second base.
    A late-season shoulder injury while suiting up as a safety for the football team delayed the start of Williams’ second season with the third-ranked Texas baseball team. His head-first slide into second base wasn’t quite the decision Schlossnagle wanted to see late in a game the Longhorns had under control, which is why Dariyan Pendergrass entered the game as a pinch runner after the 6-foot-3-inch, 210-pound Williams was called safe.
    “When he starts slow out and then tries to bust the double – I felt like it was time,” Schlossnagle said. “And three straight days of playing. He didn't play the field, but I think he's getting really close. Our training staff is doing a good job with him.
    “No other reason other than just to protect him moving forward.”
    Manning the designated hitter spot for each of the team’s three wins over the Spartans, Williams went 3-for-10 after making his season debut in Friday’s 8-1 victory. Williams scored two runs, tallied two RBI, walked twice and struck out twice over the weekend, a solid start as he looks to build on a freshman season in which he hit .327 with three doubles, 10 RBI and three stolen bases in 20 games.
    When Williams will be ready to resume his duties as a position player remains to be seen. Presumably, when the time comes, Williams will replace Ashton Larson in left field, with Anthony Pack Jr. off to a hot start in right field and Aiden Robbins patrolling center field.
    Until then, Schlossnagle will continue monitoring Williams’ progress, looking for positive signs as he saw on Friday.
    While going 1-for-3 at the plate and scoring two runs, Schlossnagle thought Williams had “great” at-bats and made smart decisions, like when he tried to turn an infield chopper into a base hit in the third inning.
    “He wanted to go to a full gear, but we've told him — his 85-90 percent is still faster than most of the guys on our team,” Schlossnagle said. “I'm really proud of Jonah for pulling up just a little bit — not at the end, but in the middle — running down the line. Then, he got his base hit and made his turn around first base. You saw some maturity there from Jonah.”
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — Carson Tinney transferred to Texas from Notre Dame, where he established himself as one of the top collegiate catchers in the country.
    A finalist for the 2025 Buster Posey Award, which honors college baseball’s top catcher, Tinney has the presence and skills behind the plate to help a pitching staff maximize its potential. Seven games into the 2026 season, Tinney and the Longhorn pitchers are propping each other up, staking their claim to be labeled the nation’s top battery.
    Asked how he’d rate the arms on pitching coach Max Weiner’s staff, Tinney said with a smile plastered on his face that it’s been “fun to catch” a group of hurlers that’s collectively twisted opposing hitters in knots en route to a 7-0 start.
    “Best stuff I've been able to catch in my life so far,” Tinney said after Sunday’s 4-0 win over Michigan State, one in which he scored a run while going 1-for-3 with a double. Southpaw Dylan Volantis recorded a second consecutive dominant start, tossing seven scoreless innings and finishing a 91-pitch outing with a career-high nine strikeouts.
    When Volantis, who continues to successfully develop a changeup he added to his repertoire in the offseason, was done, Weiner and Jim Schlossnagle turned the game over to the bullpen. Aided by a between-the-legs snag on a liner back to the mound, freshman Brett Crossland only needed five pitches to get through the eighth inning, paving the way for Thomas Burns to pump his 96 mph past the Spartan bats.
    A one-out walk issued by Volantis in the seventh inning is the only runner No. 3 Texas allowed on base after the third inning. Volantis retired 13 batters in a row at one point, while Crossland and Burns combined to mow down each of the six batters they faced over two innings.
    “It's a blast just because they dominate the zone,” said Tinney, who threw out two would-be base stealers in Saturday’s 3-1 win. “No complaints there.”
    Michigan State (2-4) came into the series “swinging the bat well with a lot of confidence,” Schlossnagle said. The Spartans slugged five home runs, pounded out 23 hits (nine for extra bases) and scored 18 runs in a series win on the road over then-No. 8 Louisville last weekend.
    The pitching staff ensured the Longhorns wouldn’t suffer the same fate. Nine different pitchers combined to record 32 strikeouts with only four walks and one earned run across three wins, a series sweep in which Texas posted a plus-13 run differential.
    “We knew the pitching staff was going to be the strong suit of our club coming into the season,” Schlossnagle said. “Veterans and the new guys throw a lot of strikes, throw multiple pitches for strikes. We're certainly going to face better teams in our league. I mean, Michigan State has got a good team and I thought Lamar had a good club. I think UC Davis will be competitive in their conference. But we all know what's ahead of us.”
    The Longhorns manufactured enough offense to get the job done on Sunday. Jonah Williams, who went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI single, drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the first, followed by Casey Borba's RBI groundout. The last run of the game in the bottom of the fourth, when Anthony Pack Jr.’s attempt to steal second base resulted in a balk, scoring Ashton Larson from third base.
    Schlossnagle knows Texas will face top-notch pitching in SEC play and beyond. Still, he believes the Longhorns will “be able to pitch with most teams,” which should make them tough to beat, even when the competition heats up.
    “We just have to keep improving, keep the right guys healthy,” Schlossnagle said. “I was glad to see Volantis be out there for an extended period. That'll help him out moving forward. We just need to stay committed to the opening day mentality that these guys have.”
    Jeff Howe
    Steve Sarkisian is scheduled to meet with reporters for a media availability on Monday. It’ll be the first time Sarkisian has fielded questions in such a forum since the Longhorns ended the 2025 season with a 41-27 win over Michigan in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
    Whether it’s how the organization navigated the highs and lows of the transfer portal window, several Texas players (including Arch Manning) undergoing surgery or Blake Gideon returning to the Forty Acres, a lot has happened since the Longhorns dispatched the Wolverines to wrap up a 10-3 campaign.
    Here are five questions for Sarkisian that will set the tone for the start of spring practice on March 9, for better or worse.
    1. Is there a timeline on when Laurence Seymore’s eligibility status will be resolved?
    There’s a high probability Sarkisian will be asked about when Texas expects to hear whether the Western Kentucky offensive lineman will be eligible for the 2026 season. But I’m not expecting Sarkisian to lay out exactly when the Longhorns will know something regarding Seymore’s status.
    While Texas waits to find out whether it’ll have the 6-foot-2-inch, 320-pound guard in the fold for the 2026 season, Dylan Sikorski has an opportunity to ease the depth concerns in Kyle Flood’s room.
    As it stands, the Oregon State transfer and Brandon Baker figure to be the No. 1 guard tandem in spring practice. The 6-foot-4-inch, 322-pound Sikorski could make Seymore’s addition feel more like a luxury by the end of spring practice, or the offensive line could feel like its ceiling will be determined by Seymore’s fate, for better or worse.
    2. How many of the players who underwent surgery in January will miss all or parts of spring practice?
    As of late last week, Ryan Wingo remained on track to be ready for the start of spring practice after undergoing wrist surgery. Arch Manning was still in a boot and Trevor Goosby was still in a sling following their respective surgeries (minor foot surgery for Manning and a shoulder cleanup for Goosby, who was seen as a recent men's basketball game without a sling).
    Goosby’s absence (however long it lasts) will allow Flood and Sarkisian to begin determining who the third offensive tackle will be, a field of competitors expected to include Jaydon Chatman and Jonte Newman. The same could be true for the safety (Xavier Filsaime is coming off shoulder surgery and Jonah Williams is with the baseball team) and wide receiver (Emmett Mosley V is recovering from ankle surgery) positions, making the spring a critical one for guys like Zelus Hicks, Jordon Johnson-Rubell, Kaliq Lockett and Daylan McCutcheon to make moves up the depth chart.
    3. What changes are coming to the running game?
    Hollywood Smothers is a perfect fit for Sarkisian's running game, which relies on the outside zone as a staple concept. Nevertheless, the inability to pivot when opponents prioritized defending the outside zone has been as big a culprit as anything else for the ground game's erratic production in 2024 and anemic output in 2025.
    A major part of getting the offensive line combination figured out is determining which group can successfully master the concepts Sarkisian wants to carry into games. The additions of Smothers and Raleek Brown could also open the door for Derrek Cooper to carve out a role for himself as a proficient inside zone runner who can bring a renewed level of physicality to the running game without feeling the pressure that comes with being asked to be the bell cow from the jump.
    4. Are there any other coaching hires on the horizon?
    If Will Muschamp is going to spend most of his time in 2026 working with the secondary, the Longhorns probably don’t need to hire a replacement for Keynodo Hudson. The fortunate thing about the NCAA eliminating restrictions on countable coaches, however, is that coaches who were previously restricted in what they could do in their quality control or graduate assistant roles have a tremendous opportunity to get their feet wet at high-level programs working under assistant coaches the likes of which Sarkisian has hired at Texas.
    Sarkisian hiring a former Power Four assistant coach (Kwahn Drake) as an assistant defensive line coach and moving Jason McEndoo (a former assistant coach at Oklahoma State) from an analyst role helping with the tight ends to a position working with the offensive line is another bonus of the current setup. Coaches who are between jobs or don't know what's next can get back to basics at a blue-blood program, doing their part to help a team that expects to be playing for championships (Neal Brown, for instance, spent a season at Texas before jumping back into the head coaching ranks at North Texas).
    Even if no hires are made before the start of spring practice, the door should be open to staff additions throughout the late spring and summer.
    5. How different will the physicality and structure of spring practice be compared to 2025?
    Sarkisian, utilizing, as he referred to it, an NFL model of offseason in 2025, wasn’t the reason the Longhorns failed to reach the College Football Playoff. Still, a program trying to recapture a physical edge in all three phases must maximize its limited live practice periods, including the spring game on April 18.
    Muschamp is expected to bring a level of intensity and attention to detail that Texas lacked over the last two seasons. Along with reviving the running game, the Longhorns must be better defensively in the red zone (an 82.1 percent scoring rate and a 60.7 percent touchdown rate allowed in SEC games, both of which ranked eighth in the conference) and cut down on an absurd number of penalties (8.31 penalties per game were the third most in FBS and 69.69 penalty yards per game were the second most in the Power Four), all of which require practice to operate with non-negotiable levels of accountability and execution.
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — The 20 pounds of muscle Texas second baseman Ethan Mendoza added to his frame in the offseason has helped fuel his early-season power surge, which continued in Friday’s 8-1 win over Michigan State.
    Entering the first game of a three-game series with the Spartans tied for the team lead with two home runs (6-for-15 at the plate with five runs scored through four games) while leading the Longhorns with seven RBI and 12 total bases, Mendoza launched his third long ball of the young season in the bottom of the second. The two-run opposite-field shot was one of three home runs Texas (5-0) pounded out in front of 7,808 fans at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, highlighting Mendoza's 3-for-4 night at the plate with a double, two runs scored and two RBI.
    “I just try to recommit every AB,” Mendoza said after recording a multi-hit game for the third time in five games. “It's really not like a hot streak or anything like that. I just take it one pitch at a time. If you have that mentality, I feel like you can do some pretty good things.”
    Although he slugged four home runs in his first 34 at-bats after transferring from Arizona State for the 2025 season, Mendoza tallied just one dinger the rest of the way. The difference in Mendoza's three home runs in his first 20 at-bats in 2026 is that the additional pop in the junior’s bat appears to be a sustainable source Texas can count on at the top of the order.
    “It's more true power this year,” coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “I think last year, he hit some balls that got up in the wind when we had those early-season (games) like we'll have tomorrow — it's kind of a north wind that cuts across the field and the ball goes out to right (field).”
    Mendoza's ability to go the other way for his home run and use the whole field is part of what makes him the offensive catalyst in the leadoff spot. With the influx of talent the Longhorns brought in from the transfer portal, Schlossnagle said he’s told professional scouts that he can’t remember a time in his coaching career when he’s had three right-handed hitters who can hit to all fields the way Mendoza, catcher Carson Tinney and center fielder Aiden Robbins can.
    With switch-hitting shortstop Adrian Rodriguez, who went 2-for-5 with two doubles in Friday’s win, “taking a jump from the right side of the plate,” according to Schlossnagle, Texas has the potential to get on base and drive in runs in multiple ways.
    “I think those are the four guys,” Schlossnagle said. “You see why guys hit for a high average when they’re able to use the whole field.”
    ***
    A late-season sickness derailed Ruger Riojas’ first season in a Longhorn uniform. Determined to return to the mound and be someone Schlossnagle and pitching coach Max Weiner can count on from start to finish in 2026, Riojas looks like a different pitcher through his first two Friday starts.
    Riojas mowed down Michigan State (2-2) to the tune of a career-high 10 strikeouts. Scattering three hits and one walk over six innings against the Spartans, Riojas has fired 19 strikeouts against two walks while allowing six hits and two earned runs through 11 innings of work.
    “I feel stronger. I look a lot better,” Riojas said after picking up his second win in as many starts. “I look at myself in the mirror and I don't look like I'm a buck fifty anymore. Seeing the work I've put in at the TANC and the weight room is definitely paying off.”
    The staff wants to keep the 195-pound Riojas’ weight up and “keep him strong,” Schlossnagle said. While Riojas’ 97 mph fastball is the most noticeable sign of the strength gains he’s made, his seven-pitch repertoire allows him to toe the rubber confident that he can execute any pitch Weiner calls at any point in the game.
    “I think Ruger's beauty is that he can pitch in a variety of ways,” Schlossnagle said. “Tonight, he used his fastball a little more. That's a team that they like to swing and they don't swing and miss a ton, especially the guys at the top.”
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — The biggest drawback of No. 3 Texas recording two run-rule victories through the first four games of the 2026 season is that there are a few pitchers coach Jim Schlossnagle and pitching coach Max Weiner haven’t seen on the mound.
    By the time the Longhorns wrap up their three-game non-conference series against Michigan State, which begins Friday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, Schlossnagle hopes left-handed junior Haiden Leffew and freshmen righties Brett Crossland and Brodie Walls will have made their respective season debuts.
    “He's an experienced pitcher at the highest levels of Division I baseball,” Schlossnagle said of Leffew on Thursday. The Wake Forest transfer was preparing to enter Tuesday’s 14-4 rout of Lamar when freshman Maddox Monsour ended the game with a three-run double in the bottom of the seventh inning.
    “With (Dylan) Volantis in the rotation, we would like another lefty in that bullpen," Schlossnagle said. “Crossland and Walls are both just super talented young players. They hear it from Max, how important they are to this team and this program moving forward, but playing time and an opportunity to pitch is what they want the most. It's what I want to see them do the most.”
    The challenge in that regard is that the run rule will be in play for each of the three games between Texas (4-0) and the Spartans, who took two of three from a top-10 Louisville club on the road in their season-opening series last weekend.
    While the run rule is a mandatory stipulation in SEC play, Schlossnagle said the Longhorns are abiding by the conference’s recommendation that any game can end if one team has a lead of 10 runs or more after the seventh inning unless both head coaches agree beforehand to play a full nine innings.
    “I think what everybody wants to avoid is the game that gets out of hand. The 21-4 game, where everybody in the park is just waiting for it to be over,” Schlossnagle said. “Not all 10-run rules are the same. There are 10-run games where the wind is blowing out and the pitching is not great and you still feel like you're in it down 10. Then there's also the argument for this time of year, where we need to get players in the game. I'm sure Michigan State wants to play — I've been in a cold weather climate where you're just looking to play. You can argue both sides, but that's the recommendation from our conference.
    Coaches across the country are dealing with the drawbacks of a mandatory rule and discussing how to best utilize it, Schlossnagle said. With that said, managing the implementation now could pay off in a few years, when downsized rosters could make the run rule necessary to get through the grind of a college baseball season.
    “We're getting closer to a 34-man roster once we get through the next couple of years. Three years from now, there will be a 34-man roster only. There won't be any extra players,” he added. “The 10-run rule comes into effect more when you're trying to avoid injury, or let's say you're down pitchers and you don't have anybody to pitch the extra two innings.”
    ***
    The starting pitching rotation won’t change this weekend. Schlossnagle and Weiner will give the ball to Ruger Riojas on Friday, Luke Harrison on Saturday and Volantis on Sunday.
    The bullpen roles, however, remain fluid, especially since Schlossnagle added two names to the mix on Thursday when he went out of his way to single out junior southpaw Kade Bing and redshirt senior right-hander Cody Howard for how they looked in Wednesday's simulated game.
    According to Max Grubbs, the lack of a defined pecking order isn't an issue for the Longhorn hurlers. The senior righty said the relievers have accepted their roles as out-getters, which puts everyone on notice that they could be called upon to enter the game in a high-leverage situation at any time once it gets turned over to the bullpen.
    Without a designated closer following Volantis’ promotion to the weekend rotation, Grubbs and the other relief pitchers have adopted the mentality that “it's always the bottom of the ninth and you're always in for a one-inning save, one pitch at a time.”
    “It doesn't matter if there's runners on or anything, the zone never changes for us,” Grubbs said. “Just attacking the zone, dominating the zone. It's what we do.”
    ***
    While Texas waits to see if Jonah Williams will make his season debut this weekend, the team got good news on the injury front coming out of the Lamar game.
    Anthony Pack Jr.’s early departure from Tuesday’s win was an issue with cramps, which Schlossnagle indicated isn’t expected to keep the electric freshman out of the lineup against Michigan State (2-1). Pack, who leads the Longhorns in hits (seven) and is tied for the team lead in doubles (two) and stolen bases (2-for-2) through four games, took part in batting practice and the team's regularly scheduled practice on Wednesday.
    Pack was expected to “go full scale” in team activities on Thursday, according to Schlossnagle.
    “He did some early work before that game in the outfield. He's looking to get more comfortable in the outfield and he's not afraid of repetition. He's not afraid of work. Probably did too much,” Schlossnagle said of Pack, who played high school baseball on a field that didn’t have an outfield fence.
    That's amplified the challenge of Pack trying to navigate right field, which is arguably the toughest outfield position to play at Disch-Falk Field.
    Although Pack won't stop putting in work to hone his craft, Schlossnagle suspects the newcomer learned a tough yet important lesson in his fourth collegiate game.
    “We all sweat differently,” Schlossnagle said. “I think we've learned he sweats more than others and he's got to learn how to rehydrate and do different things that way.
    “He should be fine.”
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