Ingram, Adeoye surprising Herman during offseason
Ayodele Adeoye (Will Gallagher/IT)
During spring practices, one question coaches often field is “who is impressing?”
Texas head coach Tom Herman gets these questions as well and one of his common responses is to name several players without expanding on why they’re impressing other than to say a player has looked good.
When Herman was asked Monday who had surprised him during winter workouts and spring football, he decided to expand on second-year players from both sides of the ball.
“We have pretty high expectations so I don’t know if there’s a whole lot of surprise,” Herman said Monday.
Herman identified sophomore running back Keaontay Ingram and redshirt freshman linebacker Ayodele Adeoye as two players who have surprised him early.
Ingram had offseason goals the moment the Sugar Bowl ended.
“I’ve got to put on some weight,” Ingram said in the Superdome locker room. “I’ve got to get up to 220, 225.”
According to Herman, Ingram has made progress toward that goal. Texas’ roster lists Ingram at 215 pounds, ten pounds more than his 2018 playing weight of 205. Though that’s just an official gain of ten, Herman hinted Ingram has put on a few more pounds.
“He’s put on a really good 12 to 14 pounds,” Herman said Monday. “He’s seeing the plays develop a little better. He’s got more patience and vision.”
Patience and vision were always strong parts of Ingram’s game. Now with added weight, improved durability could become part of his skillset.
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Ingram not only added good weight, he’s showing a propensity to throw it around.
“I think any time a kid puts that kind of good weight on in a short period of time, he gets a lot of confidence,” Herman said. “You can see him running out there with confidence right now.”
On the defensive side of the ball, Herman offered praise to Adeoye.
Adeoye played in four games last season, maintaining his redshirt. On Monday, Herman said he was impressed by the way his 6–foot-1, 250-pound linebacker looked in practice.
“We’ll know more about playing middle linebacker in the days to come, but in the past three months he’s trimmed up,” Herman said. “Not that he’s slimmed up, but he’s changed his body a little bit.”
Herman called Adeoye “the best high school middle linebacker I’ve seen in a long, long time,” after he received his letter of intent in December 2017.
In 2018, a preseason injury limited the amount of snaps Adeoye received in his freshman year. He was part of several Texas special teams units last year, but with two middle linebacker spots open to competition, he has a chance to see the field often in 2019.
During his second set of spring practices, Ayodele is starting to look like the player Herman saw on film.
“He’s moving around like the kid that we recruited,” Herman said. “He’s moving really good.”
