Team Practice Notes (Saturday 3:09 p.m.)

Texas wrapped up its third practice of the spring this morning in front of 100+ high school coaches from around the state who were in town for the Texas Coaches Clinic. Of course, Los Angeles Rams HC Sean McVay will be the keynote speaker this year.

Some notes from practice this morning.

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Starting with a pair of early enrollee freshmen – Daniel Cruz and Alex January. The two provided some really intense battles with one another in the 1-on-1 portion of practice in the trenches. Both are advanced for their age and experience, which leads to some really exciting back and forths. Both have had their moments with January avenging a rep with a smooth swim move.

January's athleticism is quite noticeable after losing 10+ pounds since the conclusion of HS ball.

Sticking with a newcomer in the trenches, Brandon Baker has been tremendous in pass protection. That was a strength of his during his high school evaluation and that has transferred almost instantly to the field in college.

Transfer safety Andrew Mukuba is going to have some work in the box this year. With Derek Williams expected to be the field safety this fall, there is going to be some responsibility for Mukuba near the line of scrimmage, which he has plenty of experience doing. Don't mistake this for the nickel spot, though that is not out of the realm of possibility eventually.

Safety Jelani McDonald has made tremendous noise on special teams. McDonald as a gunner on punt dusted a double team and drew praise from teammates and coaches in the process.

Michael Taaffe made a really impressive play on an out route thrown by Quinn Ewers today.

Texas was without EDGE Colton Vasek for a bit during practice. Vasek was suited out though spent time with the training staff when the team moved into the live team periods. I won't speculate on what the reason was, but he was absent for a period or two.

To the quarterbacks:

The deep ball has been a hit this spring thus far. Not too often is ball hitting the turf on throws 30+ yards down the field – probably could not say the same thing a year ago.

Trey Owens is doing well through three practices. He is at his best when he has a clear idea presnap with where he wants to go with the rock. That is to be expected as he gets acclimated to the system and adjusted to the speed of the college game. What he has done well with thus far is finding his checkdown. Though as we saw with Quinn early on, the development for Owens will come from a second to third read before hitting a RB out of the backfield.