Most intriguing fall camp position battles: Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt
The countdown to kickoff has finally picked up the pace. Most SEC teams are about two weeks from opening the season, which means fall camp is already nearing the halfway point.
Plenty of starting jobs remain up for grabs, so let’s take a look at some of the most intriguing position battles still playing out across the league.
Up next: Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.
Texas: Interior Offensive Line
The biggest reason for Texas’ struggles on offense a season ago was the offensive line. I spoke with Cody Carpenter of Orangebloods.com, who’s had boots on the ground in Austin for Texas’ fall camp.
“Without question, the interior of the offensive line is once again the Longhorns’ biggest weakness,” said Carpenter. “Last year it was easy to point at left guard with the turnstile of guys going through. In 2026 the main battle was between Western Kentucky transfer Laurence Seymore and Oregon State transfer Dylan Sikorski.
“Inside the building, there isn’t really a question who the better player is today, but Sikorski has been on campus for five more months than Seymore, and now he is taking on the big snaps in the final weeks of training camp and will likely get the start against Texas State, if Seymore is unable to go. The sleeper in the left guard race is graduate Cole Hutson, who was recently made ‘eligible’ after he declared for the NFL Draft, went undrafted and was not invited to an NFL Training Camp. Hutson has north of 2,000 snaps played at Texas.”
Texas A&M: Second Cornerback
Mike Elko is really high on this year’s defensive secondary. He spoke about it in Tampa at SEC Media Days and said, “This is the best secondary I’ve had at A&M.”
It appears that most of the unit is already penciled in, as far as starters go. Former five-star Dezz Ricks will man one spot, and it appears the other starting corner will be between former Tennessee Rickey Gibson III and Georgia transfer Julian Humphrey.
Those two players are the clear front runners in the battle, but don’t count out some of the other Aggie defensive backs. This unit is incredibly talented as a whole and uniquely long and athletic from a skillset standpoint.
Last year, Texas A&M was tied for the second fewest interceptions forced in the entire country with just three. Even worse, only one of those three was from a defensive back. They’ll need to turn that around if they want to make another run into the college football playoff.
Vanderbilt: Quarterback
This position battle felt like it was more for show. It just seemed like Vanderbilt would make the obvious choice at quarterback and start five-star true freshman Jared Curtis.
Curtis was not only a top five player nationally, but he is also the only five-star commit in the history of Vanderbilt’s program. Curtis carries a boat load of talent in his right arm as well as a $2 million NIL valuation according to On3.
However, with just two weeks until the first game of the 2026 season, Clark Lea has not named a starter. The whispers about Blaze Berlowitz being the potential starter are starting to get louder and louder.
The fact that Curtis hasn’t managed to pull ahead even after enrolling early during the spring is a pretty clear indicator of how much Berolowitz has improved since last season.
“The dude is attacking the work,” Vanderbilt tight end Cole Spence said on the first day of Vanderbilt’s fall camp. “He’s been all about it all summer, he’s been locked in and he’s a great leader that’s been doing really well.”
