It appears to be a game of musical chairs along Texas’ offensive line unit this spring.
It was one position group that desperately needed to improve under first-year head coach Steve Sarkisian. Star left tackle Samuel Cosmi declared for the 2021 NFL draft and the recruiting and development at the position was gradually getting worse.
Sarkisian hired one of the top offensive line coaches in the country, Kyle Flood. While it’s unclear who the starting five will be when Texas opens the season against Louisiana on Sept. 4, a few names have certainly stood out to the coaching staff through the first few spring practices.
When Sarkisian spoke to the media on Tuesday, he was gushing over Denzel Okafor. The 6-foot-4, 315-pound offensive lineman was Texas’ starting right guard last season.
Little bit of a surprise here — Sark says that super senior OL Denzel Okafor is "probably playing as good it's not better than than anybody up front right now for us."
— Wescott Eberts (@SBN_Wescott) April 13, 2021
Although Okafor clearly struggled at times last season, there is hope the improved coaching from Flood will develop him into one of the Longhorns top lineman in 2021.
Throughout his first two seasons on the Forty Acres, Okafor appeared in 22 games and made four starts. He redshirted his junior season in 2018 and contributed primarily on special teams in 2019. As a senior in 2020, he started all nine regular season games.
Okafor chose to take advantage of the extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19, and it appears to be working in his favor thus far.