Spring practices kick off for UT Longhorns football

AUSTIN, Texas - The last time we saw the University of Texas Longhorns football team, quarterback Sam Ehlinger was standing on a podium at the Superdome in New Orleans letting the world know that Texas was back!

Coach Tom Herman and the team have their sights set on getting back to the Big Easy but this time for a national championship.

Herman was all smiles as his Longhorns kicked off spring practices but he wasn't too thrilled about the early workouts in shorts and helmets.

"That's not football," Herman says. "What we're forced to do the first two days without pads on. But you could see guys that are hustling. Guys that play with great effort. Guys that make good decisions. So, saw a lot of that today."

Herman is also looking for some leaders to emerge on defense after losing several key guys. He'd like to check off a few other things as well.

"We gotta settle in on a starting five offensive line. We gotta figure out how to get these balls to a lot of these really good players at the skill positions offensively," Herman says.

"We gotta determine who our front six or seven guys are gonna be on defense. But learning how to practice is one of the biggest goals. Especially for some of these young guys," Herman adds.

Coach Herman will be able to tell a lot more about his freshman and how they practice once they put on the pads.

A couple players are already turning heads, including receiver Bru McCoy, who transferred from USC.

"He's not afraid to work and he's just so versatile. Just a great kid that also happens to be a five-star athlete too," Herman says.

Herman also mentioned Jordan Whittington as player he's excited to see in pads because "he looked very natural back there in the backfield."

The Longhorns 2019 Spring Game will be held April 13. Kickoff at DKR is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.