AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 \u201cIron sharpens iron.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the zero-sum environment of practices and scrimmages, two players consistently going back and forth is as close to ideal as possible, and that type of scenario prompted Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian to brag on junior wide receiver Emmett Mosley and sophomore nickel back Graceson Littleton when asked about standout players from his film review of Saturday\u2019s scrimmage, the second of preseason camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey both had good scrimmages. I could argue the two hardest-playing players on our team right now are Graceson Littleton and Emmett Mosley, and they\u2019re playing at an extremely high level. Not a good level. I\u2019m talking extremely high level,\u201d Sarkisian said on Monday.<\/p>\n
One of those battles produced an interception for Littleton, who jumped a route run by Mosley, his second scrimmage interception this preseason after reading a screen pass and coming up with another pick in the first scrimmage that he returned 75 yards for a touchdown, recognizing formation and tendency to read the play quickly.<\/p>\n
Early in camp, Littleton made a leaping interception playing in zone coverage against a crossing route.<\/p>\n
For Littleton, it\u2019s his first year in a new scheme under defensive coordinator Will Muschamp after a breakout season in 2025. If the spring represented an adjustment period for Littleton, who spent extra time in the film room with cornerbacks coach Mark Orphey during the summer, that period is over.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Graceson has had a great camp,\u201d Sarkisian said last week. \u201cI think there was a learning curve and a transition in spring ball, but Graceson has quickly reminded us in a week and a half of how good of a football player he really is. He made a bunch of great plays Saturday \u2014 tackling, playing physical, smart, communicates well, and so I think he\u2019s really earned the trust of Coach Muschamp, which is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Littleton demurred when asked whether he\u2019s earned Muschamp\u2019s trust, he did say last week that it\u2019s a \u201ccompletely different\u201d scheme this year in the nickel that required Littleton to master the zone-match principles Muschamp employs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could feel his confidence,\u201d Sarkisian said.<\/p>\n
In the Texas football facility, they call it \u201cearned confidence,\u201d built by Littleton over his eight starts in 2025 when he finished sixth on the team with 47 tackles (33 solo), broke up six passes, had three tackles for loss, forced two fumbles, and came up with two interceptions.<\/p>\n
So even though the conference\u2019s coaches didn\u2019t even name Littleton to the All-SEC third team last week, there\u2019s no question that they\u2019ll notice him on film as the Florida product nears a sophomore season during which he\u2019s poised to become even more of an impact player.<\/p>\n
For Mosely, his standout play during preseason camp, which included two touchdown catches on Saturday, stands in stark contrast to his lack of availability in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time last year he wasn\u2019t even practicing,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cNow he\u2019s healthy, playing fast, and he\u2019s coming off of the way he ended last season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Stanford transfer didn\u2019t make his Texas debut until the SEC opener, and it took time to establish a game-day rapport with quarterback Arch Manning as the 6\u20192, 199-pounder only had four receptions on his first nine targets before breaking out with four receptions for 53 yards and two touchdowns in the comeback victory over Mississippi State, including the go-ahead score in overtime.<\/p>\n
Through the rest of the season, Mosley showed flashes, including another touchdown catch against Vanderbilt, but it\u2019s clear that there\u2019s another level of impact he can reach for the Longhorns.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a smart guy. Move on. You can put him anywhere on the field and he knows what he\u2019s doing. He has great hands, shifty,\u201d Texas junior wide receiver Cam Coleman said. \u201cHe\u2019s really shifty for a 6\u20192 receiver. He\u2019s really, real shifty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mosley was not credited with any drops last season on 48 targets, according to Pro Football Focus, but it\u2019s his athleticism after the catch that could allow him to truly break out in 2026 after forcing only three missed tackles last season. Another area of potential improvement? Connecting with Manning on deep balls \u2014 only two of his 10 targets 20-plus yards down the field last year resulted in receptions.<\/p>\n
Of course, the potential for all of that still remains in the future, however rapidly approaching. For now, Littleton and Mosley are making each other better in practice every day, the consistent inputs that create big-time outputs in game-like situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s interesting about that, they go against each other every day, and so when you talk about iron sharpening iron and two guys that push themselves every day, whether it\u2019s in the pass game, the run game, it just shows. And then what happens? What\u2019s the byproduct? They play good when the time comes,\u201d Sarkisian said.<\/p>\n
\u201cExcited for them for this upcoming season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 \u201cIron sharpens iron.\u201d In the zero-sum environment of practices and scrimmages, two players consistently going…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":982330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48,1079],"class_list":["post-982329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-texas-longhorns-football"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117153174843274212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/982330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}