Entering his fifth-year, Junior Angilau brings versatility and leadership to the Texas O-line
Following a redshirt season in 2018, senior Junior Angilau has been a consistent presence on the Longhorn offensive line. Of the 35 games in the last three seasons, Angilau has started 34 of them at either right or left guard with the Longhorns’ 2019 loss at Iowa State his only absence.
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Angilau is the elder statesman of Kyle Flood’s offensive line room. A fellow classmate in Christian Jones also is an experienced member of the position group from the same 2018 class, but Angilau has started 13 more games than Jones and arguably provided higher-quality play.
Now, Angilau has more of his time at Texas behind him than in front of him. With that in mind, UT head coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday he sees a sense of urgency in not just in how Angilau handles his day-to-day responsibilities, but how he helps his teammates do the same.
“He’s an excellent leader,” Sarkisian said Monday. “He understands what it takes. I think he’s a guy, going into his senior season, that wants to have a great team season. He wants it for the team, and is willing to do what it takes for the team.”
It’ll be tough for anyone to fully unseat Angilau at guard, even for talented freshmen like Cole Hutson, DJ Campbell, or Malik Agbo. However, the possibility exists that Angilau lines up at a different spot this season.
During a media viewing portion at last Thursday’s Texas football practice, Angilau was taking reps exclusively at center. He was situated behind incumbent starter Jake Majors and third-year lineman Logan Parr. That shift further inside isn’t a permanent change quite yet, as Inside Texas noted on Tuesday that Angilau is still on the first-team line at his familiar right guard spot.
But even if Angilau’s snaps at center are a fleeting training camp event, those experimental reps speak to what Angilau can offer to the 2022 O-line.
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“His versatility is important that way, whether it’s guard, whether it’s center, when his number is called, that he can go do those things,” Sarkisian said. “He’s a very smart player.”
Angilau’s ability and versatility likely keeps him in the starting lineup in some form or fashion heading into his senior year. But with seven new faces in his position room, the senior is making an effort to be a leader among his peers and remain ahead of them on the depth chart. Those efforts among competition earned the praise of Sarkisian.
“He’s played a lot of football, and I think he’s really good for our younger guys in a sense of learning, but also learning how to practice, learning how to compete, doing it when it gets hard,” Sarkisian said. “He’s got a lot of mental toughness about him, and I think that he’s a really positive impact on a lot of our guys.”
Angilau’s work over the next three weeks will have a significant say in what spot he plays during his senior season, whether that be right guard, left guard, or center, but his contributions over the last three years have made him difficult to replace in the starting lineup.
Plus, as Sarkisian mentioned, the players trying to take the senior’s spot will have to utilize traits learned from the example set by Angilau in order to complete the unlikely task of relegating the fifth-year senior from Salt Lake City to the bench.
