After plenty of preseason chatter, it’s now time to start watching the Longhorns instead of just talking about head coach Steve Sarkisian, quarterback Arch Manning, a transfer class that ranks third 247 Sports’ offseason team rankings and the rest of a team ranked No. 4 in the coaches’ preseason poll.
Here are three observations from the first day of practice at Denius Fields.
Defensive back John Meredith III, who reclassified from the 2027 class to 2026, practiced Wednesday after completing all the necessary paperwork needed to officially join the program. He hadn’t been listed on the Longhorns’ 2026 online roster but had his name on the paper roster handed out by Texas staff members before practice. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound cornerback, ranked as the No. 2 overall prospect in the nation for the 2027 recruiting cycle per 247Sports, committed to Texas last month over Texas A&M and Alabama. The Dallas-area native also felt the intensity of his first college practice with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees on the grass fields; less than 30 minutes into the practice, Meredith got sick on the turf and had to find shelter from the sun under a sideline pop-up while being checked on by the staff.
The legal saga that includes hundreds of former NCAA athletes seeking a fifth year of eligibility extends to the Longhorns, since former starting guard Cole Hutson wants one more year with Texas after not landing an NFL job. But Hutson wasn’t at the first practice, and his name still doesn’t appear on the official roster. Starting next season, the NCAA will fully implement an age-based eligibility model that grants collegiate athletes five years regardless of playing time, a requirement commonly known as the “five-for-five” rule. The model, which effectively removes the redshirt concept, calls for an athlete’s eligibility clock to start upon initial full-time enrollment in college or at the beginning of the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs earlier. The age-based eligibility implementation will begin this summer. Recruits starting in 2027 are age-based only. Class of 2022 athletes such as Hutson have challenged the rule in court, saying it should be extended to their class and the athletes that were only allowed to play four full seasons before running out of eligibility.
The 30-minute practice window for the media doesn’t provide much else beyond warm-ups and a few basic drills, but it does include some special teams work. Ryan Niblett, last season’s breakout star as a return man, handled the punt returns. But two offensive starters also rotated in with Niblett, including starting receiver Ryan Wingo and new running back Raleek Brown. The sturdy Brown, listed at 5-9 and 193-pounds, is expected to share the load in the backfield with fellow portal arrival Hollywood Smothers. Last season, Brown earned All-Big 12 honors at Arizona State.