What we won't learn about Texas football during spring ball

Spring ball is a great time to learn about the next installment of Texas Football, but even with 15 practices, multiple media availabilities, and consistent practice reports, it’s impossible to learn everything we’d like to. Even if Texas held a spring game, I sincerely doubt we’d learn about the aspects listed below.

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Thanks to IT commenter CKey for the question in our weekly Q&A. A short reply would not have been adequate.

Kicker and Special Teams

After a strong 2024, in which he corrected after a slow start, Bert Auburn had very public struggles in high leveraged situations in 2025. In general, special teams had issues with consistency after a fair amount of attrition. Most notably, miscues on fakes and poor punting put Texas’ stellar defense between a rock and a hard place.

The only thing we can truly feel confident about is improved punting after the addition of the very steady Jack Bouwmeester from Utah.

It doesn’t matter if Auburn goes 100/100 in spring practice and 100/100 in August camp. What will matter is how he responds to kicking in Columbus, Ohio and beyond. No matter how hard coaches try, they simply can’t replicate the pressure of a real game.

As for coverage teams, they need to be tested in in-game scenarios when they’re mentally and physically tired. The fakes suffered against Georgia in the SEC Championship and Arizona State in the playoffs simply can’t happen.

I’m bullish on Jeff Banks getting it right, but that’s due to his overall track record and the amount of attention to detail he puts towards coaching the third phase. He also has a much more experienced group to work with.

Right Tackle and Perhaps Efficacy of Run Game 

We were only moderately surprised that Trevor Goosby fared so well in his playing time at the end of last year. The only surprise was he played so well against the level of competition he faced. Fortunately, reports on him were very favorable from the moment he arrived on campus. We felt like we knew him without seeing much of him.

Brandon Baker and Andre Cojoe come with much more projection. We know Baker was rated highly out of California, with Texas fortunate to hold off Oregon and Ohio State. We’ve also heard he’s a hard worker. Cojoe came in with the opposite recruiting reputation but has steadily improved since he arrived in Austin at the incredibly young age of 16. They are quality players, but are they ready for the SEC this year?

Along with the questions at right tackle, we’ll want to learn if Texas can lean into a specific run game identity. One that helps them excel at play-action passing. The run game last year was good against most teams but disappeared when it was needed most against Georgia and Ohio State. Just a week after thoroughly dominating Clemson, the run game struggled mightily against Arizona State as well.

Tight End

We’re investigating the injury to Jordan Washington. The redshirt sophomore has significant potential, particularly as a receiver, but he can’t afford to lose time to develop. The position is a massive question even if he’s 100% healthy. Fortunately, the early word is Washington’s issue is minor and will require minimal rest.

Yes, I’ve seen the ESPN writer’s stance on Spencer Shannon. He has improved in the last year+, but he isn’t someone Texas can count on as a down-to-down player.

IT has heard positives about freshman Emaree Winston, but he’s still a freshman.

Texas needs a really strong portal addition.

Progression Passing

The expected value with recruiting a quarterback with Arch’s last name is the infusion of high IQ progression passing. No. 16 has certainly shown the hallmarks of that ability, but it requires time to develop. Going up against Texas’ excellent secondary should help, but missing his top two receiving targets—DeAndre Moore and Ryan Wingo—will likely slow his growth, at least in the immediate. In particular, it’ll slow his development of chemistry with two guys we currently expect to be his top targets.

Arch Manning‘s abilities are going to show up first in hitting play-action, shot plays, and RPOs before he develops more as a progression, drop back passer as we get deeper into his collegiate career.

I suspect we’ll hear much more about Arch’s ability to get through his reads during August.

In general, Steve Sarkisian is putting a lot on Manning’s plate. We won’t know until September if it was the right amount or too much, too soon.

Red Zone Offense

It’s no secret Texas has had its issues in the red zone the last two seasons. Reasons have been manifold, but the driving force has been the inability to run the ball in conventional running scenarios.

There’s reason for hope, specifically Manning as a plus-one in the run game, the expected growth of Jerrick Gibson, and healthy returns by both Christian Clark and CJ Baxter. Another year of red zone difficulty may also spur the staff to develop some new solutions, like a more reliable jumbo package.

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But, we’re all going to need to see RZ improvement with our own eyes against good to great competition. That won’t happen until the fall.