Spring offers development opportunity for Longhorn leadership candidates

Under Steve Sarkisian, Texas doesn’t name the permanent captains for a given season until after its completion. Various foursomes may trot out to midfield for the coin toss as captains, and those players typically are leaders, but the most-revered members of the team are enshrined after the season on the wall of captains in the Moncrief-Neuhaus complex.

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Five players received the honor last year: Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson, DeMarvion Overshown, Keondre Coburn, and Jaylan Ford.

Four of those players just competed at the NFL Scouting Combine. The only one returning is Ford.

Ford, a fourth-year player from Frisco (Texas) Lone Star who received AP third-team All-America honors last year, knows that the departure of four fellow captains means he has huge shoes to fill. Ford is aware there are off-field parts of his skill set he must improve in addition to the on-field facets he came back to Texas to develop for the 2024 NFL Draft.

“The first thing for me is just getting outside of my comfort zone and just being more vocal, especially with the team,” Ford said Wednesday. “Demanding the best out of everybody, defense, offense, and all that.”

Developing leadership isn’t just a task for Ford, it’s one for Sarkisian as well. Amid making the most of 10 returning starters on offense, finding new players for key spots on defense, and making decisions at quarterback with Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning in the room, Sarkisian is looking for the men who will disseminate his message to the team in the Longhorns’ final Big 12 campaign.

Winter workouts and the first day of practice gave him a glimpse of who could step up. That glimpse offered a rosy picture for the third-year head coach.

“I do really like the leadership on this team from where we were and how certain guys have evolved into more of a leadership role,” Sarkisian said Monday. “That’s been really encouraging.”

Though Sarkisian is replacing four captains, those four didn’t leave the cupboard bare. Their example was handed down to their potential replacements so that the right way to do things is known.

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“A lot of these guys have had a model of what it looks like,” Sarkisian said. “When we first got here, they were still trying to figure out what leadership meant to us. That was a real task for the Roschon’s of the world and the D-Mo’s of the world to try to learn it without having a visual. A lot of these guys now know what it looks like and what the expectation is of them.”

Who were some of the players Sarkisian mentioned on Monday? He included Ford, Jordan Whittington, T’Vondre Sweat, Jerrin Thompson, Barryn Sorrell, Jake Majors, Christian Jones, Xavier Worthy, and Keilan Robinson as players developing into leadership figures.

That was evident during the viewing windows of Longhorn spring practices on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Before players and coaches separate for individual position drills, the team has one player lead a program-wide set of jumping jacks that spell out “H-O-R-N-S.”

On Monday, it was Ford. Tuesday was Whittington’s opportunity. Friday’s breakout was assigned to Sweat.

Those players, Ford specifically, understand what being in that position as a leader for Texas now entails thanks to examples set by those before him.

“It’s about what you tolerate,” Ford said. “Ro was good at not tolerating nonsense. He would address it. He would get the guys that he felt were the leaders of the team, we’d meet up, discuss this and that, take notes, and bring it to the rest of the guys. That’s something we need to rebuild with the guys we have now that will be leaders for next year.”

And how is that done? Christian Jones, the only player remaining in the program from the class of 2018, has a process.

“You replace that by being early, doing everything that you’re supposed to do all the time, and being intentional and not having intent,” Jones said Wednesday.

During their sessions with the media, Jones and Ford identified a group of leaders identical to the one offered by their head coach on Monday. In addition, the two mentioned Ewers, Jahdae Barron, Morice Blackwell, David Gbenda, Hayden Conner, and Ja’Tavion Sanders.

Ford understands that while it’s important his teammates develop their leadership abilities, especially the Longhorns’ returning quarterback in Ewers, he will be looked to more than any other figure on either side of the ball considering his status as a returning captain. Texas is losing an unquestioned alpha in Johnson, and Ford has a tall task in being the replacement because of difficult things an alpha must do.

“Understanding that once you have the respect of the locker room, what you say to the players or what you would say is the standard carries,” Ford said. “Having guys to back you up as well. Not being afraid to be a bad guy. What I mean by that is you can’t really be friends and be a leader at the same time. You have to tell them the things they don’t want to hear and hold people accountable.”

Twelve practices, an offseason of workouts, and preseason camp will offer Ford and other leadership figures more time to develop those skills.

Based on early returns from Sarkisian and Ford, progress is being made in those areas.