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LTtxfan

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immamac
immamac

Everyone will be very gruntled to hear we did 2 NIL deals. 1 with RoJo and one with Jonathon Brooks. 

SDG
SDG

Because we’re in the half that is playing.  

immamac
immamac

Oh and each is 5 figures. 

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LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49187

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Bijan and Roschon lead the way, but who is behind them?

Joe Cook•about 17 hours

Untitled-design-2022-07-22T155555.261.pn

Keilan Robinson (Will Gallagher/IT)

Texas has known commodities at the top two spots of its running back depth chart. Junior Bijan Robinson was selected as the Big 12 preseason offensive player of the year in recent weeks after his 1127-yard sophomore season. Senior Roschon Johnson missed out on the media’s preseason All-Big 12 team, but joined Robinson on the watch list for the Doak Walker Award, given annually to the nation’s top back.

Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has heaped mountains of praise on both Robinson and Johnson since the 2021 season ended. Not only has that duo performed on the field, they’ve done everything Sarkisian and his coaching staff believe is right off of the playing surface.

While Sarkisian has a propensity to distribute most of the carries to the top two backs — Robinson and Johnson received 79 percent of the running back carries last season — the physical demands of running back position should necessitate game-readiness from every member of Tashard Choice’s position group ahead of the 2022 season. After all, Johnson originally became a running back because of lack of depth in 2019.

Who are behind the top two? Three backs with some flashes in their career but no proven track record.

Keilan Robinson enters his second year in the Longhorn program. The Alabama transfer was third on the team in rushing yardage behind Bijan Robinson and Johnson with 322 yards on 45 carries. Following Bijan Robinson’s season ending injury versus Kansas, Keilan Robinson rushed for 111 yards and a score on nine carries in the game at West Virginia.

Keilan Robinson also plays a key role on special teams. His explosive quickness that was made evident a handful of times last year is useful not just in the return game, but also on punt block and other special teams units.

For Robinson to find more opportunities than that of a change-of-pace back, his hands need to improve. In 11 games last season, Robinson caught seven of the 10 passes intended for him. For as often as Sarkisian distributes the ball to running backs in the pass game, better hands are needed for him to be more than a wrinkle.

Contending for the third spot with Robinson is Johnathon Brooks. A standout at Hallettsville, Brooks rushed 21 times for 143 yards and a score last year, and played meaningful snaps versus Kansas when injury plagued the position. However, he too fell victim to injury and was lost for the year in that game.

He flashed, however, and did so once again in the Longhorns’ Orange-White game. Brooks could provide a more complete presence out of the backfield than Keilan Robinson, as could the true freshman in the room.

Jaydon Blue elected to sit out his senior season at Klein Cain High School in the Houston area before enrolling at Texas. That raised eyebrows for those following his recruitment, but a fellow member of his running back room said Blue has acclimated himself well to college football.

“With any freshman, you have something to prove,” Johnson said at Big 12 Media Days. “You have to prove that you can work. You have to prove that you’re worthy of wearing those colors. He’s definitely made strides. When you’re a freshman coming into this program, it’s shaky for everybody. He’s definitely made big strides from the first day that he stepped on campus.”

Blue arrived at Texas with tremendous physical gifts as evidenced by his personal best 10.7 in the 100m. After taking a hiatus from competition, so far Blue has proven those gifts have translated to Texas.

Those are the scholarship options who will look to pick up the carries not taken by Bijan Robinson and Johnson, the two undisputed workhorses of the backfield. With the physical toll running backs take, there should be opportunity for all three of Keilan Robinson, Blue, and Brooks to find snaps outside of the special teams realm in 2022.

And the walk-ons?

Of course, there are also members of the walk-on ranks who may not see snaps this year but provide value to others in the position group and the opposing defense as members of the scout team. Walk-on backs on the 2022 roster include freshmen Ky Woods and Colin Page, plus sophomore Anton Simieou.

Woods was a burner at Clear Springs High School in League City. On the track, he recorded personal bests of 10.9 in the 100m and 22.93 in the 200m. He rushed for 877 yards on 132 carries with six touchdowns while also hauling in 34 passes for 413 yards and five touchdowns in 2021 to conclude his three-year varsity career.

Page, a product of Anderson High School just down the road from UT’s campus, rushed for 832 yards and four touchdowns on 125 carries in seven games for the Trojans.

Simieou played linebacker at Pearland High School before switching to running back at Texas. He has not seen any game action in his two years on the Forty Acres.

 

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LTtxfan

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Bijan Robinson opens up on new RB coach Tashard Choice

Justin Wells•  about 7 hours

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Tashard Choice with Keilan Robinson and Bijan Robinson (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

When Bijan Robinson joined the Texas Longhorns’ class of 2020, former running back coach Stan Drayton was a major key to the acquisition. When Drayton took the Temple head coaching job after last season, Robinson needed a new mentor. Enter Tashard Choice.

The former Georgia Tech star and NFL running back joined Steve Sarkisian and the Horns in late December 2021 after a brief stint with Lincoln Riley and the USC football staff.

For Robinson, it was a transition from a father figure to a big brother.

“Man, he’s meant everything to me,” Robinson said at Big 12 Media Days. “When he came in, he didn’t make nothing slow down, you know? Coach Drayton got us to a level of trying to be great, and (Choice) came in and he just elevated it even more. He’s a young coach and he has a lot of energy, but the most important thing is his teaching. He’s teaching me so many things that I might not have learned before, that I might not have seen before.”

Choice was a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference rushing champion at Georgia Tech in 2006 and 2007, and played six seasons in the NFL. He was a member of the Dallas Cowboys, where he rushed for 1,139 yards and eight touchdowns on 4.6 yards per carry from 2008-2011. He also played for the Washington Commanders (2011), Buffalo Bills (2011-13), and Indianapolis Colts (2013) before transitioning into his next profession.

Choice jumped into coaching at Waxahachie High School outside of Dallas, then as a coaching intern with the Dallas Cowboys, and as an assistant coach at North Texas.

Robinson continues to learn from Choice, on and off the field. For example, Choice has emphasized pass blocking and route-running in their brief time together.

“He’s teaching me so many things that I might not have learned before, that I might not have seen before,” Robinson said. “We watch film all the time and we just get to the (nitty) gritty. I know that we can always improve on watching film and seeing different holes in defenses, even in our games. So, you know, I try to elevate my level in a different way with that.”

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LTtxfan

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FCB

RUNNING BACK

Running backs coach Tashard Choice is really trying to get Bijan Robinson to become a much better blocker and be more physical when it comes to blitz pickup and Robinson’s blocking in general.

If you want to single out an area of play in which Roschon Johnson is WAY ahead of Robinson, it’s blocking, and it’s not even really that close.

Johnson attacks his blocks and dishes out some punishment, while Robinson too often uses his arms and not the explosion in his lower half to pop his blocks upon engagement.

One NFL scout told me Robinson’s ability to be an effective blocker, especially in blitz pickup, is the single biggest knock on Robinson’s game. So, we’ll keep tabs on how Robinson is progressing in this area throughout fall camp.

Jeff Banks said Keilan Robinson is “head-and-shoulders above anyone on this team” in terms of making impact plays on special teams (blocking two punts last year) and will be given a chance to return kicks this season.

Banks said Robinson has added 12 to 13 pounds (even though he’s listed at 185 pounds and was listed at 183 pounds last season) and because of the depth at running back, Banks added, “I don’t feel as worried about him getting banged up.”

Banks listed Robinson and Roschon Johnson as the two most dependable special teams players on the Texas roster.  

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LTtxfan

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Thx for this, cross-post from @Okcool 

Tashard the Right Choice

By: Super K          August 5, 2022

We have yet to see what coach Tashard Choice’s running backs will do on the field but…c’mon…it’s Bijan and RoJo. Not a difficult pair to coach or lead to success.

But in terms of recruiting, we’ve already seen him have success landing in-state RB, Tre Wisner. Choice beat out a formidable opponent in DeMarco Murray. Earlier on, the Sooners had a lead for Wisner and Choice was able to quickly turn the tide.

Last night, I was talking to the parents of an OU target, 4-star DB, Makari Vickers (Tallahassee, FL). They are just coming off a visit to Norman. In the course of the conversation, they were talking about how during the recruiting process a big thing for them was finding coaches they connect with – coaches who are genuine.

And completely unprompted (as it was a recruitment related to OU) they brought up Tashard Choice. They absolutely raved about him. Makari’s father basically said that if Choice was the position coach at Texas, the Horns would have very much been in the mix for Makari.

Hearing that gave me more confidence that the Horns will likely hold off a push from Georgia and land 4-star RB, Cedric Baxter (Orlando, FL). Should that happen (and sources on the Texas side believe it will), that’s an incredibly impressive haul for Choice in his first year.

And, Choice will have gone into Georgia’s own recruiting territory and taken Baxter just as UGA is coming off a national championship.

Choice and I happen to have a mutual friend and you’ll recall that when he was hired I mentioned that said friend spoke very highly of Choice. But, to see it in action on the recruiting trail and to hear his name in a conversation completely unrelated to Choice or Texas, corroborates what I’d previously heard.

Heck of a hire and I imagine Lincoln was none too happy to lose him.

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1leggedduck

1leggedduck 443

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So the current RB room includes Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson, Keilan Robinson (all Jr.s), Brooks (soph.), Blue (fr.) and will add Baxter and Wisner in 2023. We're loaded, but the spacing and different, complimentary, styles will hopefully keep everyone in the fold. That is a tremendous amount of proven talent, and a tremendous amount of potential coming up. 

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LTtxfan

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In the OB scrimmage report today...

--- Along with Bijan, I was told that RB Ky Woods actually had a solid day. He scored a TD.

 

I forgot about Ky Woods...   2022 Class

Woods is a Clear Springs, Texas running back who is rated as a three-star prospect by 247Sports. Wood stands at 5’9” and 184 pounds.

According to his MaxPreps page, Woods finished his senior season with 877 total yards, good for 6.6 yards per carry, along with 11 touchdowns.

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LTtxfan

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Scipio Tex aka Paul Waddlington   9/5/2022

Texas-ULM Post Mortem:   RB

Bijan touched the ball 13 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns. He looked very good. No reason to take tread off of his tire, even if he could put up 100 yards in the second half running against the ULM defense. Roschon, Brooks and Keilan combined for 12 carries for 73 yards and two rushing touchdowns while Blue handled closing time. The backs are what we think they are and frankly, our quarterbacks needed the work.

In the two back set featuring Keilan and Bijan, I wouldn’t exactly describe Keilan as a blocker (see 5:05 mark in Q1). More of a I-got-in-your-way-er.

 

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