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It's now or never for these 4th or 5th year Texas Longhorns

Joe Cookby:Joe Cook•03/03/23•

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Texas defensive back Kitan Crawford. (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Most of the Texas Longhorns on the current roster are from the classes of 2021, 2022, or 2023. Professional opportunities, the transfer portal, or the real world have come calling for many members of the classes of 2019 and 2020 brought to the Forty Acres by Tom Herman and his staff.

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But there remain 12 players from the Longhorns’ 2019 and 2020 classes on campus. Plus, Christian Jones’ status as the only 2018 class member still in Austin deserves a mention as well.

Unlike many of the 2019 and 2020 players, Jones has entrenched himself as a starter for the Longhorns. There are several from the group of 12 who have seen some playing time, but need to make the most of 2023’s fifteen spring practices in order to put themselves in a position to see more snaps in Texas’ final Big 12 campaign.

Vernon Broughton, DT

Broughton played in 12 games last season with a start, with his best performance likely his two-tackle, 1.0-TFL game at Texas Tech. However, despite the Longhorns’ heavy rotation at defensive tackle, Broughton often found himself in the third platoon behind a top two of Keondre Coburn and Moro Ojomo and a second unit of T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy.

Even with Coburn and Ojomo embarking on their NFL careers, a path to playing time isn’t quite as clear for Broughton. The rotation last year was the result of being at least four-deep at tackle, with Broughton and Alfred Collins there to provide rest when the aforementioned quartet needed a breather.

As a fourth-year player, Broughton has to take strides in several important areas, many play-strength related, in order for the Longhorns to feel comfortable with a heavy rotation at defensive tackle again.

Sawyer Goram-Welch, OL

Goram-Welch has shown selflessness during his UT career, switching sides in the trenches from defensive line to the offensive line. All of his career appearances have been on defense, and they all were either in 2020 or 2021.

While Texas has recruited offensive line extraordinarily well in the past couple of cycles, there is a major opportunity for Goram-Welch during the upcoming spring practices. Logan Parr’s transfer and injuries to both Connor Robertson and Cole Hutson make the picture murky at center behind Jake Majors.

Should Goram-Welch take to the position in upcoming practices, it’ll help Kyle Flood sleep much better at night and make Goram-Welch an essential member of the O-line group for the upcoming year.

Kitan Crawford, DB

Crawford has been a consistent presence on the Longhorn special teams units, even blocking a field goal last year. But the now fourth-year East Texas product has just one start in his career, the 2022 contest at Kansas State in place of the injured Anthony Cook.

After beginning his Longhorn tenure at cornerback, Crawford was moved to safety. But the uber-athletic defender has yet to fully pick up the processing aspect of his position.

If Crawford can match his athleticism with an ability to read keys, he’ll become more than just a reliable special teamer.

David Gbenda, LB

Gbenda was mentioned as a potential breakout candidate by Inside Texas earlier this week with good reason as consistent starter snaps have eluded the On3 Industry Ranking four-star. Gbenda has started three games in his career but has not been a mainstay in the lineup at linebacker. Part of that has to do with the presence of DeMarvion Overshown, but Gbenda could only be trusted with spot duty in the last two years.

Gbenda will face stiff competition from the likes for Morice Blackwell, Liona Lefau, and Anthony Hill. It truly is now or never for Gbenda or else he could be passed by younger talents.

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