{"id":401648,"date":"2026-08-09T05:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T05:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/401648\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T05:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T05:40:14","slug":"texas-football-has-plenty-of-speed-but-which-2026-longhorn-is-fastest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/401648\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas football has plenty of speed but which 2026 Longhorn is fastest?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, the eyes don\u2019t lie.<\/p>\n

Any Texas football<\/a> fan that saw Ryan Niblett <\/a>reel off one big play after another in the return game in 2025 understands that the fourth-year running back returns as one of the fastest players in college football.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t believe it, even after seeing him return a punt 79 yards for a touchdown against Mississippi State<\/a> and another one 75 yards for a score against Oklahoma<\/a>? Check the radar, which clocked Niblett at 20.8 mph on that return against the Sooners.<\/p>\n

But does that mean Niblett is the speediest player on the Texas squad<\/a>? Not so, well, fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t like to put myself in there,\u201d Niblett said Thursday, still sweating off the afternoon heat after the Longhorns\u2019 second practice of summer camp. \u201cI’m very humble.\u201d<\/p>\n

It takes speed to know speed, and Niblett pointed out three of his teammates who could lay claim to the hypothetical sprint champion for the Longhorns: freshman receiver Kohen Brown, third-year receiver Ryan Wingo<\/a> and senior defensive back Warren Roberson.<\/p>\n

\u201cKohen, of course,\u201d Niblett said. \u201cKohen’s definitely fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown joined Texas as a 6-foot, 210-pound three-star recruit from Waxahachie, a town about 30 miles south of Dallas that\u2019s not traditionally known as a talent hotbed. But Brown\u2019s speed quickly caught the attention of Niblett, his teammates and his coaches. During summer conditioning drills, he\u00a0reportedly<\/a> reached 23.1 mph.<\/p>\n

Wingo\u2019s selection as one of the team\u2019s top speedsters doesn\u2019t surprise. In 2022, the 6-foot-2, 214-pound St. Louis native finished third in the Missouri 5A state championships in the 100 meters with a time of 10.55 seconds. Last season he reached 22 mph on a reception against Sam Houston, which ranked as the fifth-fastest time by any player per metrics tracked by Reel\u00a0Analytics.<\/p>\n

Wingo also stands as the fastest Longhorn in the latest player rankings for EA Sports “College Football 27” video game\u00a0with a speed rating of 97, just ahead of running back Raleek Brown (95) and safety Xavier Filsaime (95). Niblett comes in at 94.<\/p>\n

Roberson, a 6-foot, 189-pound cornerback from the Dallas-area town of Red Oak, \u00a0was a surprise selection by Niblett. His only recorded track times came from high school, where he never cracked 11 seconds in the 100. (The video game has him at a 90 speed, for what that’s worth.)<\/p>\n

By the way, the 5-foot-11, 188-pound Niblett, a preseason All-American selection as a return man by The Sporting News,\u00a0has some speed on record at Aldine Eisenhower High School in the Houston area. As a sophomore, he recorded a time of 10.58 in the 100 and 22.14 in the 200.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes, the eyes don\u2019t lie. Any Texas football fan that saw Ryan Niblett reel off one big play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,261,266,537,536],"class_list":["post-401648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-college-football","tag-sec-football","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}