Amid the first week of fall practice for Texas football, depth chart movement and potential breakout players are two big storylines the fans and media are following. In the heat of the Austin, TX, summer, Texas players and coaches hit the practice fields for the first couple of days of preseason camp on July 31 and Aug. 1.
Which position changes could take place for Texas football early in fall practice?
During the brief media viewing windows at the first two days of fall practice this week, we’ve gotten glimpses of what the two-deep is shaping up to be for the Longhorns on both sides of the ball.
Head coach Steve Sarkisian and staff will have some movement on the two-deep as different position groups jostle for starting jobs over the next few weeks. Another possibility regarding depth chart movement in preseason camp is the idea of players switching positions to fill key needs on certain parts of the roster.
Position changes are usually a bigger storyline for spring camp since there isn’t much time to get a player adapted to an entirely new role on the field during preseason camp before the season starts in late August. Where Texas could have some beneficial position changes is with small tweaks to player roles, especially in areas where the staff is already cross-training guys.
Here are three possible position changes to watch for the Longhorns in fall camp.
Jaydon Chatman
Current position: OT
Possible switch: Flex TE
In the last couple of years, Sarkisian and Kyle Flood have been very willing to use different offensive linemen as flex tight ends and full backs to get more power run packages for the ground game. For example, sophomore Malik Agbo was moved from the offensive line to play more snaps at flex tight end to give the Longhorns more power and strength running the ball in short-yardage packages in 2023.
Another possibility for the Longhorns to get more blocking power up front for the ground game on offense this fall is to get a fleet-of-foot offensive lineman among the underclassmen to take reps at flex tight end, like redshirt freshman Jaydon Chatman. The 6-foot-4 and 300-pound second-year lineman is one of the more agile and fleet-of-foot offensive tackles for the Longhorns this fall camp.
Given Chatman’s excellent ability to finish blocks and the versatility and quickness he brings as a run blocker from different spots and alingments along the offensive line, he makes sense as a candidate to fill that flex role this fall. He could also play that full back power blocker role in goal line and third and fourth-down packages for the Longhorns’ ground game this fall, like Byron Murphy did a couple of years ago in the backfield on offense.
Junior Jaray Bledsoe could realistically be considered Texas’s most athletic and explosive defensive lineman. Bledsoe is an absolute matchup nightmare in one-on-one blocking matchups when he gets the proper get-off from the line of scrimmage and uses his hands well.
Bledsoe played a more significant role for the defensive line for the Longhorns in live-game action during his sophomore campaign compared to the reps he got on defense as a true freshman. He nearly took 100 defensive snaps last season as his spot on the two-deep along the interior defensive line slightly elevated last fall.
The issue Bledsoe is running into regarding his spot on the interior defensive line rotation early in fall practice is finding the exact place where he fits along the line of scrimmage. Bledsoe is an absolute beast physically with how he looks in warm up drills and getting off the bus for practice and games.
