Jeff Howe

Monsour is really intriguing. I don't think the cameras caught it, but Schloss wasn't happy with Larson for failing to get a big enough lead from second base to advance on a ground ball Ethan Mendoza hit back up the middle of the diamond. Schloss yanked Larson after he was doubled off to end the inning, and Monsour took advantage of his opportunity.

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.” View full news story

I would love for Dailyn Swain to be back on the Forty Acres next season. But a first-round guarantee is a first-round guarantee. He has to go if he gets one.

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.” View full news story

I feel really good about these four groups. That's not to say that the other position groups are in trouble, but I love the talented depth within these four positions.

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. View full news story

I once had lunch with Billy Ray Smith, who has a jacked up pinky. It was borderline frightening.

That's it for Sean Miller's Zoom call. On the way out, he thanked the reporters on the call for sticking with him and the team throughout the season. He hopes there are more games ahead for the Longhorns before the 2025-26 season is in the books.

I asked Miller if Lassina Traore will be available on Tuesday or beyond. "We're beyond that," Miller said. It sounds like Traore has played his last game for the Longhorns.

A 2-point FG percentage and a high free-throw rate have carried Texas offensively, Miller said. "Offensively, Miller said, "it's hard for me to be too critical."

"I don't know that we ever disconnected from that moment," Miller said of how Texas reacted to the loss to OU. He believes that the Longhorns have disconnected from the loss to Ole Miss and are ready to face N.C. State.

On the possibility of Xavier fans who might show up, Miller said (with a smirk) he's got a lot of friends in Cincinnati and he thinks the environment will be very supportive.