The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Herman, Longhorns ready for year two
03.20.2018 | Football
Football opens spring practices on Tuesday afternoon.
The second year of the Tom Herman era with Texas Football begins on Tuesday afternoon, when the Longhorns strap on the helmets to start spring practices. UT will embark on a 15-practice journey throughout the next five weeks, culminating with the Orange-White Spring Game on April 21.
Year two brings familiarity, but it doesn't bring complacency for a program that is eager to return to the top of the Big 12 and college football. These Longhorns are hungry to get back on the field. Coming off a 33-16 Texas Bowl victory over Missouri to finish the 2017 season 7-6 overall, the Longhorns are anxious to carry that much-needed momentum not only into the spring practices, but into the 2018 season which kicks off on Sept. 1 at FedEx Field against Maryland.
"We've got guys that want to be here," Tom Herman said Monday. "There's a tremendous amount of positivity in that locker room right now. I think the bowl game really showed the guys in that locker room what they're capable of.
"I am really excited and I told the team that I've never been more excited to coach a team than this one."
The momentum from a season-ending victory has carried over into the offseason strength and conditioning program. The strides made under Yancy McKnight (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Football) and his staff have been impressive.
"I do want to commend Yancy McKnight and our strength staff," Herman said. "We had 46 guys vertical jump over 30 inches, with a team average of 31.5. That includes our big guys. We had 40 guys power clean 300 or more pounds…we had 33 guys squat over 500 pounds. In the power clean, we had 40 guys over 300 pounds. We had four guys over 350 pounds."
Perhaps there is no better example of the strides made this offseason than a player such as senior linebacker Breckyn Hager. Hager power cleans 360 pounds and vertical jumps 38 inches despite gaining 25 pounds since the arrival of Herman, McKnight and the staff just over a year ago.
"We've had a magnificent couple of months of developing our players," Herman told reporters on Monday. "Developing them in the weight room and on the field, but also developing relationships. That is a big thing for us, to develop. I think our guys have really taken that to heart. They've just built relationships within the team and within the locker room, with their coaches. It's been fun to see the growth of this team.
The impressive numbers don't just stop at Hager. Senior defensive lineman Charles Omenihu, at 6-foot-6 and 280 pounds, vertical jumped 37.5 inches. That marks a 12-inch improvement from when Herman's staff arrived, despite an 18-pound increase in body weight. Herman also pointed out the fact that Omenihu has shed three percent body fat entering spring ball.
Another senior who impressed is cornerback Kris Boyd, who led the team with a 39.5-inch vertical jump. He also added eight inches to his standing broad jump, now at 10-feet, 1.5-inches, while his back squat went up 105 pounds.
Three guys who enter just their second year in the program power clean in excess of 350 pounds. Sophomore linebacker Marqez Bimage maxed out at 350 pounds, while redshirt freshman offensive lineman Sam Cosmi hit 355 pounds and sophomore defensive lineman Ta'Quon Graham 370 pounds.
"That is a testament to the development that goes on during the season for a lot of these young guys," Herman said. "They work out one extra day a week during the season and it paid big dividends."
Herman went on to point out that Bimage hit 610 pounds on the back squat, Cosmi and Graham 570 and then Jamari Chisholm, a junior college transfer a season ago, who also enters just his second year in the program, maxed out at 585 right before spring break.
The group of returning players who tasted victory in the Texas Bowl will be pushed this spring by nine early enrollees who were part of a consensus Top 5 recruiting class nationally. Herman and his staff have clearly been impressed by their work ethic from day one and look forward to seeing them out on the field during the spring.
"Beyond expectation, to be honest with you," Herman said of the group of early enrollees. "Strong. Cameron Rising power cleaned 300 pounds. He's supposed to be getting ready for prom right now. B.J. Foster power cleaned 300 pounds. These guys, they're mature. Dele (Ayodele Adeoye) is a grown man.
"I tell our coaches all the time, recruit more (of the early enrollees). Great families, that are great players that want to be even better, that want to develop. The list goes on and they've been, as a group, beyond expectation."
The big emphasis throughout spring practice, and the rest of the offseason, will be focusing on finishing. Five of the Longhorns' losses a season ago came by 10 points or fewer, while four of them were by seven points or fewer. Both of those numbers were most among Power Five Conference schools.
"We've got to learn how to finish," Herman said. "We're putting our guys in situations every day to teach them how to finish; teach them how to be at their best in the fourth quarter of games, at the end of a workout, at the end of a run, at the end of a practice. That's when you've got to be your best and we're putting them in those positions."
