Payton Kirkland discusses first semester challenges, massive body transformation
Texas freshman early enrollee offensive lineman Payton Kirkland made his fourth appearance on the On The Bench podcast recently and outlined his Spring semester on the 40 Acres with its challenges in the classroom and on the field at Spring drills.
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Kirkland, who is 6-foot-6 from Orlando (Fla.) Dr. Phillips and committed to Texas before even visiting Austin, also talked about how he dropped more than 30 pounds to get to 343 pounds and closer where he feels he should be weight-wise while competing for playing time for the Longhorns.
“I was nervous,” Kirkland said. “Yeah, it was the day after the All-American Bowl and I just drove up from San Antonio and my family moved me in, and after about an hour and a half I sent them on their way. I was ready to have my own space to myself.
“I gave it like a month and I started getting used to the environment. We’re doing the same thing every day, right? And then spring ball started creeping up on us and I’m like, ‘it’s about to get crazy.’ I’m like these (are) grown ass men, like they got a 26-year old on my team in my offensive line group.”
Kirkland said he fed off his initial nervousness. There was, and is, a lot to learn.
“I feel like if you’re not nervous when it comes down to sports, you’re not doing it right, you know?” he said. “It was more like anxiousness than nervousness, just anxious to learn and anxious to pick up on information and anxious to soak in everything that they were telling me. It was a huge adjustment for me.”
Kirkland said Spring drills were rough for him, and his weight had a lot to do with that.
“Coming in, I was heavy,” Kirkland explained. “You know, I reported to school at about 375 pounds and by the time Spring ball started I was about 355. I finished spring ball around like 343.
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“I know how I like to feel when I’m playing football. And (the Texas coaching staff) agreed with my decision. They told me when I came in, you got to do what you got to do. I feel like that was probably one of the biggest things that I felt that they appreciated about me was that I came in ready to work and I knew what I had to work on.”
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College football is incrementally faster than football at the prep level and a lot of things came at Kirkland very quickly.
“College ball is very fast,” he said. “It’s a lot of plays. A lot of people screaming. It’s a whole lot of everything. At practice you’re tired from start to finish and there’s no way around it. And my first like two practices were the first week of Spring ball when we didn’t have on pads. It was kind of awkward. But you know, I was definitely getting cussed out for not knowing my plays and all that.”
Kirkland was ranked as the No. 531 overall prospect, the No. 30 offensive tackle, and the No. 91 player in Florida in the 2023 class in the On3 Industry Ranking.
