Derek of all trades

It's not often that defensive tackles find themselves in a position to have their hands on the ball. Many Texas fans remember Rod Wright's 80-yard fumble return for a TD against Oklahoma last season, but those opportunities can be few and far between.

Junior Derek Lokey, however, has greatly increased his odds by not only joining the Longhorn offense as a fullback in short-yardage situations, but also by working at deep snapper with the special teams. Lokey had the rare treat of seeing time at all three positions during the season opener versus North Texas.

Despite having never played fullback in a game, it was not Lokey's first experience on offense after lining up at wide receiver in high school before motioning in to block. So when the UT coaching staff asked him to help at the position, Lokey was ready.

"I thought it went well," Lokey said of his debut. "I'll have to watch the film to make sure I blocked the right person (laughing), but I know I blocked somebody on every play I was in there."

In fact, on his first snap, it was Lokey who paved RB Selvin Young's path to the goal line by pushing a group of Mean Green defenders back into the end zone. Young didn't quite score, but on the next play, Lokey remained in as QB Colt McCoy snuck in to give UT a 14-0 lead en route to the 56-7 win.

"One thing that's great about playing fullback is that you get a head start before you have to hit somebody," Lokey laughed. "When you're on the defensive line, there's so little space between you and the offensive linemen, there's not a lot of room for energy and momentum to get going, so the hits aren't the same as getting five or six yards of head speed where you can really have an impact on them."

The only question his fellow defensive tackles have is when Lokey will have the opportunity to get the ball. Until then, they will continue to find a little humor in the situation.

"They got on me pretty good one day when I had to get a golf cart to take me from defensive drills to offensive drills, because the fields are so far apart," Lokey recalled. "They have called me a traitor, but I can live with that."

So if he is indeed a traitor to the line, it might not be just once over. Lokey did manage to get his hands on the ball through his third role as a backup deep snapper for Greg Johnson and the field goal unit.

"Coach McWhorter told me before the game that if we were in a situation where we were way up, he wanted to get me a few snaps," Lokey said.

That was just what he did. Having also had the experience of snapping in high school, Lokey shifted from one position to the next seamlessly, with one slight exception.

"The hardest part about (snapping) is taking off your gloves and drying your hands off and getting out there ready for the snap," Lokey noted. "As far as mentally, it's not that difficult."

Despite his newfound duties, Lokey still keeps his focus on his original defensive tackle position where he made his first collegiate start against UNT.

"To me, (starting) was a great experience, and it's something I've been looking forward to ever since I committed to UT as a junior in high school," Lokey described. "When I came here, I understood that there were really good, NFL caliber players here and that it would take some patience and I'd have to wait my turn. I understood that coming in, and I feel like I really learned a lot in the last two years in the time I got in the games."

Lokey gives credit to the players who left last season, such as Wright and Larry Dibbles, for helping him improve, and paving the way for the 2006 defensive line.

"I think as a D-line, we've all noticed they're gone for sure," Lokey said. "We learned a lot from them, but we wanted to make it our goal - especially Roy (Miller) and me and Thomas (Marshall) and guys that are really going to be making an impact this year - to make it where there's not any drop off."

Lokey hopes that by the end of the season, the defensive line will take the lessons they've learned from those players and build on them, even if they didn't teach him much about handling the ball.

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics