Kelvin Banks looks to parlay experience from freshman year into bigger accomplishments in 2023
The Texas football team is in preparation to enter 2023 as one of handful of teams that returns all five of its starters on the offensive line, with the unit – one of the most important aspects of a football team – expected to be a strength because of growth and continuity.
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At the center of that unit (on the left end, actually) is sophomore left tackle Kelvin Banks, who heads to his second season on the 40 Acres off a freshman All-American performance and as the projected next “great” lineman produced by the Longhorns.
Banks, a 6-foot-4, 324-pounder from Humble (Texas) Summer Creek, played in and started all 13 games in 2022 and earned a second-team All-Big 12 Selection by both the Big 12 Conference’s head coaches and the Associated Press. He was named a Freshman All-American by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and was chosen to the 2022 All-Texas First Team by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.
There’s no doubt that Banks turned heads in his first season with the Longhorns. He more than held his own against four defensive ends that were drafted in the first round in the 2023 NFL Draft – Alabama’s Will Anderson (third overall pick), Texas Tech’s Tyree Wilson (seventh), Iowa State’s Will McDonald IV (15th) and Kansas State’s Felix Anudike-Uzomah (31st).
“Playing against those guys taught me a whole lot,” Banks said Wednesday. “I learned about going against very high-caliber guys and congratulations to them for getting drafted as high as they did. But I learned how to do different things as far as technique, making sure my pad level (was right), just different little, small tweaks to your game that you would need to go against a technician.”
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Banks has turned the page on last season and is focused on improving his technique and helping his teammates improve as Texas enters its most anticipated season since 2019.
“It’s definitely been a big change for me as well from last year because last year was kind of like a learning curve and learning new things learn from other guys,” Banks said. “I’m the guy needing to help the other guys out, making sure I stay focused during practice and during walkthroughs and just making sure I’d give good feedback to the younger guys.”
Banks said his technique has “definitely grown” since last year.
“(Offensive line coach Kyle) Flood has done a good job teaching every everyone on the offensive line the same techniques, making sure we know what steps to take and what steps not to take – not just telling us but telling us why we should take those steps.”
Banks said the attitude of the team is different through the first week of preseason camp.
“I feel like we’ve got a lot more leadership and that’s definitely a big part of a winning team and I feel like it’s been growing every day every day,” Banks explained. “You know, you won’t always be perfect, but I feel like we have a leadership committee and a group is doing a good job trying to get everybody on task.”
