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    Jeff Howe
    If there’s a silver lining to No. 2 Texas losing Jonah Williams to season-ending shoulder surgery, it’s that the Longhorns have been without him since he was injured while diving for a ball late in a 14-2, run-rule win over USC Upstate on March 6.
    Williams, who hit .304 in an eight-game, truncated sophomore season, was expected to be a big piece of the puzzle in 2026. After Texas (18-1, 2-1 SEC) routed Ole Miss on Sunday, 8-2, to win the team’s first SEC series of the season, Jim Schlossnagle brought up how Williams’ health created a question mark for the Longhorns at the plate.
    “His legs are fine,” Schlossnagle said, referring to Williams’ previous hamstring troubles, on top of the shoulder issue that carried over from football season. “He's just trying to figure out what we're going to do moving forward with his shoulder and if that's going to allow him to play.”
    Williams won’t play again for Texas until 2027 while rehabbing what sources told OTF on Monday is a rotator cuff injury. Nevertheless, Schlossnagle and the Longhorns have had several players step up to take advantage of the opportunity Williams’ misfortune created, which needs to remain the trend as SEC play continues.
     
    1. ANTHONY PACK JR.
    Williams’ injury recovery in January opened the door for Pack to win the starting job in right field on opening day. The 5-foot-10-inch, 190-pound freshman, whose high school home baseball field lacked an outfield, which has added a different dimension to learning how to properly patrol the outfield at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, has manned both corner outfield spots.
    Where Pack has most cushioned the blow of Texas losing Williams is at the plate. Pack ranks among the team’s offensive leaders through 19 games with a .354 batting average (second), a 1.096 OPS (fourth), 22 runs scored (third), 23 hits (fifth), five doubles (second), 23 RBI (second), 40 total bases (fifth), four home runs (sixth) and seven stolen bases (first).
    “Pack is one of those special freshmen. There aren't many of them,” Schlossnagle said. “There's usually about 15 to 20 in the SEC every year that get 50 at-bats or more and have an impact when they do that. We had Adrian (Rodriguez) last year. When I was at (Texas) A&M, (Gavin) Grahovac and (Caden) Sorrell, those guys were superstar freshmen. Now, Pack is on that list.”
     
    2. JAYDEN DUPLANTIER
    Hitting .333 in 18 games (27 at-bats), Duplantier’s nine hits are two shy of tying his single-season career-high of 11, which he set while playing 34 games (43 at-bats) as a freshman in 2023. A reliable option as a pinch-runner and late-inning defensive substitution, Duplantier’s role should continue to grow with Williams on the shelf.
     
    3. ASHTON LARSON
    The LSU transfer drew the early-season starting assignments in left field while Williams was working his way back into the lineup.
    Larson has skins on the wall in SEC play; he led the Tigers in batting average (.337) during conference play in 2024. Injury issues limited him to 34 games (five starts) during LSU’s national championship-winning season in 2025, but Larson has a role for the Longhorns in an outfield platoon with Duplantier, unless one of them separates and earns more playing time or someone else steps up and joins the mix.
     
    4. MADDOX MONSOUR
    The freshman from Carrollton, Ga., is hitting .429 with two home runs and three stolen bases in limited action. Monsour entered Sunday’s win over the Rebels after two base-running mistakes led Schlossnagle to remove Larson from the designated hitter spot, going 1-for-1, stealing a base and scoring a run to help the Longhorns secure the win and the series victory.
    There’s no guarantee that Monsour’s positive performance will lead to more opportunities. Still, Schlossnagle is excited about Monsour's potential, which seems high enough to get him into the battle with Duplantier and Larson for playing time.
    “I love Maddox,” Schlossnagle said. “Maddox is awesome on the bases. His aggression on the bases and how he runs the bases is incredible. I just want to see the same aggression at the plate. We had a conversation about that last (Saturday) night after his at-bat... You don't have to swing at the first pitch; you just have to be ready to hit. I felt like he was super passive. He's been pretty passive in his at-bats. He has a lot of value: he can play shortstop, he can play all three spots in the outfield, he can really run, but to be a more effective college player, you've got to give us something at the plate.”
    Jeff Howe
    Dailyn Swain isn’t thinking about Tuesday’s NCAA Tournament First Four game in Dayton, Ohio, against NC State being his last in a Texas uniform if he decides to enter the 2026 NBA Draft.
    That’s what Swain said during a press conference at Dayton’s UD Arena on Monday, one day before the Longhorns and Wolfpack meet for the second time this season. The SEC Newcomer of the Year and a second-team All-SEC selection, Swain’s stock as a potential first-round pick has risen throughout a season in which he currently leads Texas (18-14) in points per game (17.7), rebounds per game (7.5), assists (104), steals (55) and minutes per game (32).
    “I'm just focused on finishing the season as good as we can as a team, playing as hard as I can for my seniors and all the guys who won't be able to play anymore and trying to make a deep run for Coach (Sean) Miller in his first year here at Texas and letting the country know how good a coach he is,” Swain said. “That's the main thing, really.”
    According to ESPN Research, the 6-foot-8-inch, 225-pound Swain is the only player from a major conference program (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC) who currently leads their team in five major statistical categories.
    A finalist for the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award, Swain is currently projected to go in the first round of the draft in Jeremy Woo’s pre-March Madness mock draft for ESPN.com. While writing that “evaluators are mixed on his upside, but it's the type of chance a team might take in this range,” Woo has the Minnesota Timberwolves selecting Swain with the No. 29 overall pick.
    Sources have indicated to OTF that if Swain gets assurances from a team that he’ll be selected in the first round, he’s expected to forgo his final season of eligibility and declare for the draft.
    With that said, it's not a forgone conclusion that Swain is gone.
    Along with a likely significant NIL deal headed his way if he returns to the Forty Acres for his senior season, Swain, who doesn’t turn 21 until July 15, could significantly improve his draft position by waiting until 2027 to enter a draft that’s currently expected to be less top-heavy while lacking the depth of the 2026 class.
    Whether Swain is at Texas or is on an NBA roster for the 2026-27 season, Sean Miller is proud of the growth he’s seen from Swain, who has evolved from a wiry 6-foot-7-inch, 176-pound, 18-year-old freshman at Xavier into a well-rounded forward with a legitimate future in the NBA.
    “He's just gotten better. Same coach, same strength coach, structure — I think he's really bought in,” Miller said on Monday. “He listens, he learns. We've had amazing support from his mom and family. They allow us to coach Dailyn, hold him accountable and Dailyn has worked hard to develop his shot, develop his body. I think his ability to pass and handle the ball,  something that he had a good starting point on, he's really taken that to a very high level.
    “There aren't too many players that play college basketball that had a better overall season than Dailyn did.”
    Jeff Howe
    Viewing windows into two spring practices aren’t enough to tell us everything about the 2026 Texas Longhorns.
    Nevertheless, the time afforded to the media to take stock of the Texas position groups provides a good snapshot of positional depth across the roster.
    One thing I’ve always tried to identify is which position groups have talented depth. Those are position groups that can bring In reserves for starters with minimal decline in ability, potential, or production.
    The best recent example is the 2022 running back room on the Forty Acres.
    With the Doak Walker Award winner (Bijan Robinson) leading the way, Tashard Choice’s room in his first season coaching the Longhorn running backs included Robinson, Roschon Johnson, Keilan Robinson, Jonathan Brooks and Jaydon Blue. Those players who shared a backfield for one season at Texas were selected in the first, fourth, fifth, second and fifth rounds over three NFL drafts, respectively.
    That’s the best-case scenario for a position group aiming to boast talented depth. Right now, I think four position coaches can rightfully claim they’ve got talented depth in their room.
     
    1. DEFENSIVE LINE
    Even if Justus Terry doesn’t exclusively fit in with Kenny Baker’s group, the fact that the defensive line can go through drills unaffected by the absences of Terry or James Johnson (both of whom are on the mend) says a lot about the unit’s depth.
    It would be hard to find a better four-man group in the country than Ian Geffrard, Alex January, Hero Kanu and Maraad Watson. There’s a chance all four of them could be drafted in 2027, or January and Watson could return for the 2027 season as potential early-round picks in 2028. Regardless, Watson spending time practicing playing closer to the ball is the kind of move that could allow Baker and Will Muschamp to mix and match combinations based on certain situations to ensure the four lead dogs in the pack have enough gas in the tank for the fourth quarter of games and, hopefully, a deep run in the College Football Playoff.
    Considering there are four players with realistic NFL futures headlining the group, Baker and the Longhorns can continue to let Myron Charles, Josiah Sharma and Zion Williams develop behind them. Texas also doesn’t need Johnson or Terry to rush back from injury because of the quality and quantity at the point of attack.
    This group might not have the ceiling of the 2023 group, which featured four linemen who went in the first three rounds of the 2024 (Byron Murphy went 16th overall and T’Vondre Sweat was the 38th pick) and 2025 (Alfred Collins was picked 43rd overall and Vernon Broughton was selected with the 71st pick) drafts. Thankfully, it doesn’t need to repeat that level of draft success to play a pivotal role in the Longhorns' competing for a national championship.
     
    2. WIDE RECEIVER
    Emmett Mosley V and Ryan Wingo weren’t on the field for either media window during the first week of spring practice. Still, they’ve got spots secured within Steve Sarkisian’s circle of trust as two of the four wideouts on the 2025 squad who were targeted more than 40 times (94 targets for Wingo, 49 for DeAndre Moore Jr., 48 for Mosley and 44 for Parker Livingstone, according to Pro Football Focus).
    Considering the 31-target difference between Livingstone and the wide receiver with the fifth-most targets last season (Daylan McCutcheon with 13), there are six scholarship wideouts (McCutcheon, Sterling Berkhalter, Jermaine Bishop Jr., Kohen Brown, Kaliq Lockett and Chris Stewart) competing for the last spot in the rotation. And if the buzz Bishop generated last week carries over to padded practices after spring break, that could leave five of Chris Jackson’s scholarship players to duke it out for whatever targets are left over after the top four wide receivers get fed.
    The sense of urgency among Jackson’s charges should be sky high. Anything less won’t cut during what must be an insanely competitive spring, with Sarkisian, Jackson and the other offensive coaches doing whatever it takes to maximize what’s expected to be Arch Manning’s final campaign as a Longhorn.
     
    3. EDGE
    Brad Spence spending time with the EDGE group and the linebackers in spring practice is a sign that Muschamp wants to put Spence’s natural pass-rushing ability to good use.
    Colin Simmons is going to draw enough attention to get pass rushers playing alongside him in favorable matchups and cleaner paths to the quarterback. Spence is one of the players who can take advantage of those situations, but he’s not the only one.
    Lance Jackson, Smith Orogbo, Zina Umeozulu and Colton Vasek have flashed playmaking ability throughout their Texas careers. Keep in mind that after Muschamp was hired, the staff avoided losing Umeozulu and Vasek to the transfer portal, showing their value to the program.
    Even though six defenders are competing for opportunities to get after the quarterback, Jamarion Carlton and Richard Wesley look the part physically. It isn’t a hot take to think one or both of the true freshmen could log high-leverage snaps by the time the 2026 season is in the books.
     
    4. RUNNING BACK
    There was a time last season when Quintrevion Wisner, C.J. Baxter and Christian Clark were dealing with or recovering from injuries. That left Jerrick Gibson and James Simon to pick up the slack.
    By the time the Longhorns were preparing to face Michigan in the Citrus Bowl, three of those five runners had entered the transfer portal. Michael Terry III had already moved over from wide receiver for depth purposes by that point.
    Wanting to avoid similar pitfalls in 2026, Sarkisian and Jabbar Juluke left nothing to chance in the offseason when rebuilding the running back room.
    Raleek Brown and Hollywood Smothers were two of the best available running backs in the transfer portal. Derrek Cooper was one of the top high school running backs in the 2026 recruiting cycle.
    Those three, along with the returns of Simon and Terry, the late-cycle addition of Jett Walker and whatever becomes of Ryan Niblett's role, give the Longhorns seven scholarship backs, a group with a good mix of experience, youth, proven production and high upside. Considering Baxter and Clark were coming off major injuries at this time last year, it’s remarkable how the position has been almost entirely turned over and is better positioned for success, with more margin for error based on the early returns from spring practice.
    Jeff Howe
    When Texas opens practice to reporters, we get to see Steve Sarkisian in coaching mode.
    Regarding the start of spring practice, Sarkisian's role goes beyond that of a coach. Sarkisian is approaching practice periods like a teacher when class is in session, demanding attention to detail, information retention and maximum effort reps from his students.
    There’s always been a level of intensity that Sarkisian roams the practice field with that doesn’t always show on game day, when he’s locked in on his call sheet for four quarters. What’s different about Sarkisian from the glimpses we got during the first week of spring practice is a renewed sense of urgency.
    Especially when the offense is going through drills without a handful of veteran leaders (during routes on air, for example, Arch Manning, Ryan Wingo and Emmett Mosley didn’t participate in either open media window this week), Sarkisian directs his troops like a coach who understands the young, inexperienced Longhorns don’t have a ton of examples they can study to see how practice is supposed to run. After leaving more things to chance than he should have coming off a trip to the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2024 while preparing for the 2025 season, Sarkisian is leading by example and setting the proper tone for a program that must be more buttoned up in several areas to get back to the CFP.
    As he was giving the media his thoughts on Monday’s practice, Sarkisian could’ve been talking about himself when describing what the players did well.
    “You could feel the competitive spirit, and not necessarily always across the ball with each other,” Sarkisian said. "I think competitively internally, that's what great competitors have — that internal fire to want to do it the right way.”
    Whether he’s rewriting the wrongs from last season, trying to match the energy Will Muschamp is infusing into the defense or trying to maximize his on-field time with several new faces on the field, Sarkisian looks like he’s motivated to do things in a way that positions Texas to win championships in his sixth season on the Forty Acres.
     
    — One of the top storylines to follow when Texas returns from spring break is seeing if Jermaine Bishop’s impact translates to contact practices.
    The true freshman has been the talk of spring practice through the first week and rightfully so.
    Bishop has a unique ability to hit another gear when tracking the football and then attack it in the air that words can't accurately describe. He's one of several Longhorns who profile as a potential football unicorn, with his combination of physical traits, body type and playmaking ability that’s hard to compare to other Texas players.
    Rasheem Biles, Cam Coleman and Colin Simmons are individually unique. Those three Longhorns have skins on the wall as college football players. It’s up to Sarkisian to come up with ways to get the most out of Bishop.
    Thankfully, that’s a big reason why Bishop chose Texas.
    A two-way prospect who “has the ability to do either,” Sarkisian said when Bishop signed with the Longhorns in December, the Willis product selected by Dave Campbell's Texas Football as Mr. Texas Football was expected to begin his collegiate career on defense when he committed to Texas. Sarkisian had experience coaching high-level two-way prospects at Washington (John Ross) and USC (Adoree’ Jackson), both of whom went on to become first-round NFL draft picks at wide receiver and cornerback, respectively.
    Sarkisian's efforts to weaponize Ross and Jackson gave him a road map he could present to Bishop and his family as to why the Longhorns would be the best fit for his football future. The early returns from spring practice suggest Sarkisian will have to unveil his plan for maximizing Bishop sooner rather than later, if he continues to light it up at practice.
     
    — If there’s one thing we’re not talking about enough through two practices, it’s the quality snaps KJ Lacey is getting with the first-team offense.
    Manning should regain the keys to the offense at some point before the spring game on April 18. Until then, Sarkisian, AJ Milwee and Mike Bimonte get to see how Lacey operates with the first unit, which should pay off if he’s called pressed into duty (keep in mind that Texas needed Matthew Caldwell to play critical snaps in two SEC road games, including overtime of the comeback win over Mississippi State).
    The most poignant comment Sarkisian made this week might’ve been how one of the unintended consequences to come from Manning’s foot surgery was Lacey getting an opportunity rarely afforded to quarterbacks further down the depth chart than an elite signal-caller like Manning.
    “A lot of times, we have to manufacture that throughout spring — put him with the ones, pull Arch out. Now, he's just getting all of this,” Sarkisian said. “I don't know when, how much his number might get called this fall, so there's a lot of banked reps that he's getting right now that I think are invaluable for him.”
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas players took to heart what Steve Sarkisian told them before the start of spring practice.
    “We've got a really talented group of people individually,” Sarkisian said Monday, recalling his message to the Longhorns last Friday. “Now, we need to become a really talented team.”
    Texas was talented enough to win 10 games in 2025. Its blemishes, however, led to three losses, which prevented the Longhorns from making a third consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff.
    Whether it was parting ways with four position coaches (including hiring Will Muschamp as defensive coordinator), turning over the roster by attacking the transfer portal more than any time throughout his coaching tenure on the Forty Acres (almost 40 new faces on campus for spring practice between transfers and freshmen who enrolled for the spring semester), or restructuring the offseason schedule (the return of the spring game and the implementation of the program's “Culture Wednesday” team bonding sessions during the spring), Sarkisian tweaked the process Texas will go through ahead of the 2026 season.
    It’s a process the Longhorns trust, defensive lineman Hero Kanu said after Wednesday’s practice. Kanu, who has the phrase “Trust The Process” tattooed across his chest, said the mantra must become the team’s identity to maximize its full potential.
    “You can have all the talent in the world. If you can't do the little things right, it doesn't matter,” Kanu said. “So, obviously, you've got to trust the process and go in the right direction every day, going up the hill.”
     
    — There are three big changes on defense Kanu has noticed as Muschamp goes about installing his scheme.
    Texas will be a more aggressive down-to-down defense. Kanu specifically mentioned the interior defensive line causing more disruption to help the EDGE group get loose more often.
    Muschamp’s energy and knowledge of the game, Kanu said, are second to none.
    Kanu also mentioned Muschamp’s plans to mix up how often the Longhorns operate out of a three, four or five-man front.
    In that regard, the over-the-ball tackles will have a big say in how versatile Muschamp can be. Thankfully, Kanu has been impressed with the strides made by 378-pound Ian Geffrard and 364-pound Zion Williams since arriving from Arkansas and LSU, respectively.
    “You don't see a lot of guys at that weight moving this well,” Kanu said. “I'm really proud of them, how far they’ve come.”
     
    — Colin Simmons can’t hunt opposing quarterbacks until the fall. In the meantime, he’s searching for the next source of fuel to keep his fire burning.
    Before playing a snap at Texas, Simmons was determined to move his family out of where they previously lived. His mother, Monica McCarley, and his 11-year-old brother, Clayton Roberts, relocated to the Austin area last year.
    Simmons, who, along with his mother, founded “Clay’s Color Crew” in 2024 “to support the entire Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) community,” said the move has allowed Clayton, who was diagnosed with autism in 2020, to enroll in “a school that's good for him, that he's getting the right attention and the right treatment."
    “With me doing that, it was like, 'OK, what's next?’ Simmons said. “I'm looking for what's next. But while I look for what's next, I'm just going out here and having fun.”
    Fun is the key to Simmons' success, as far as he's concerned.
    After publicly stating his desire to break Kiki DeAyala’s single-season school sack record (22.5 in 1982) last spring, Simmons started pressing. The weight of self-imposed expectations played a big role in Simmons’ slow start (1.5 sacks through the first five games of the season and 10.5 over the team's last eight games), making him determined not to let the pursuit of individual accolades negatively impact his play.
    “Knowing myself, I like to have fun. I like to have a smile on my face,” Simmons said. “The best Colin Simmons is when he has a smile on his face.”
     
    — Even in a deep EDGE room, Lance Jackson was too good to keep off the field as a true freshman.
    According to Pro Football Focus, Jackson played 261 snaps in 2025. That was the fourth-highest total among the EDGE group, behind Simmons (615), Ethan Burke (378) and Brad Spence (264).
    Jackson, who is up to 272 pounds after Muschamp told him in December that he wanted the Texarkana Pleasant Grove product to bulk up, knew what he needed to do to get ready for college football by following the lead of his brother, former Arkansas defensive lineman Landon Jackson. Landon put in a lot of hard work to become a two-time All-SEC defender and a third-round draft pick by the Buffalo Bills in 2025.
    That's the same mindset Lance brought with him to the Forty Acres.
    “Ever since I got here in December (2024), he told me what I needed to do to be able to play,” Lance Jackson said. “I learned the playbook fairly fast and then was able to get on the field.”
    Even in a rivalry with the history and renewed vitriol that exists between the Razorbacks, blood is thicker than water when it comes to Landon’s continued influence on Lance.
    “I feel like now, he doesn't really look at it as much as a rivalry because he just wants what's best for me,” Lance Jackson said. “He wants me to win every game.
    "He just wants me to shine.”
     
    — Whether he’s playing cornerback, filling the nickel role in Muschamp’s defense or lining up anywhere else on the field, Graceson Littleton’s expectations for himself when he steps on the field won’t change.
    “Dominate in everything I do,” Littleton said. “I want to be the best. I want to excel in everything I do.”
    Two of the three secondary coaches from last season’s staff are gone. The one who was retained, Mark Orphey, is someone Littleton trusts to help him reach his ceiling as he begins the process of cross-training at cornerback and nickelback.
    “He recruited me out of high school. I loved him,” Littleton said. “He happened to come to Texas. I'm very excited to be able to play under him and then at Star (nickel) as well.”
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