The Texas football team practiced in pads on Monday. Here are three observations from the team.

With the countdown beginning to the Aug. 31 season opener against Colorado State, the Texas football team resumed practice on Monday.

This could be the most anticipated season in Texas in quite some time. Coming off a 12-2 year that included the Big 12 championship and its first appearance in the College Football Playoff, UT was picked to finish second in the SEC preseason poll.

On Monday morning, the media was able to watch about 25 minutes of UT practice. Here are three things the American statesman observed about Denius Fields:

Jelani McDonald vying for bigger role in 2024

After stretching, Texas opened Monday’s media window with 11-on-11 action. And when the supposed top-notch offense competed against the supposed top-notch defense, some familiar names like Barryn Sorrell, David Gbenda and Anthony Hill Jr.

One of the starting safety spots — at least this Monday — was occupied by sophomore Jelani McDonald. A 6-foot-2, 200-pound Waco product, McDonald has never started before. He appeared primarily on special teams during the 2023 season, in which he compiled two tackles. McDonald was a four-star recruit in high school.

“Jelani McDonald has made huge strides at safety,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said during the spring. “He’s very lanky, he’s very physical, he’s a good defender. Considering that in high school he basically played quarterback most of the time, that football IQ is translating to the defensive side of the ball. react well and we got a glimpse of that last year on special teams and now it’s trickling down to the defense.”

-Danny Davis

Freshman Xavier Filsaime, security guards getting physical

The shells – shoulder pads and helmets – are now on the Texas football team, and you can feel the intensity increase. A tackling drill by the security guards proved particularly physical, with true freshman Xavier Filsaime showing a willingness to put his shoulder into a ball carrier and knock him to the ground. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Filsaime could be a redshirt candidate based on the number of seniors ahead of him at the position, but don’t be surprised if he’s an immediate contributor on special teams.

Oh, and not every safety was so happy with the start of shell training. Junior Michael Taaffe is still wearing a green coin designating him as an injured player, as he broke a bone in his left hand over the summer. He is training but is unable to do more physical reps, which led him to mutter “I’m sick of this green (blank) shirt” after having to resist contact during training.

-Thomas Jones

Texas baseball player adapting to the football team

At 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, Nik Sanders looks like a running back. Sanders, of course, is a catcher for the Texas baseball team who recently joined the football team as a two-sport athlete.

It can be difficult to find playing time for Sanders, a second-year college student who last played football in high school. The Texas depth chart is led by returnees CJ Baxter and Jaydon Blue and four-star freshmen Christian Clark and Jerrick Gibson have joined the program. And sure enough, Sanders has been running at the back of the line in many of the drills that have been seen during the three media windows of this fall camp.

But Sanders is adapting to running backs. Baxter said last week that “he’s definitely one of those guys we needed in the room. … Nik is one of those outspoken guys. We knew him before he joined the team. We met him at TANC where we had lunch, so it wasn’t like we met a new guy, he’s just new in the room.”

-Danny Davis

This article originally appeared in the Austin American-Statesman: Three observations as the Texas Longhorns hold football practice on Monday