With the countdown started to its Aug. 31 season opener against Colorado State, the Texas football team resumed practicing on Monday.

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

On Monday morning, the media was allowed to watch around 25 minutes of UT's practice. Here are three things the American-Statesman observed at Denius Fields:

Jelani McDonald competing for a bigger role in 2024

After stretching, Texas opened Monday's media window with some 11-on-11 action. And when the presumed first-string offense competed against the presumed first-string defense, some well-known names like Barryn Sorrell, David Gbenda and Anthony Hill Jr. were lined up on defense.

One of the starting safety spots − at least for this Monday − was taken by sophomore Jelani McDonald. A six-foot-2, 205-pound Waco product, McDonald has never started before. He primarily appeared on special teams during a 2023 season in which he compiled two tackles. McDonald was a four-star recruit in high school.

"Jelani McDonald has made some tremendous strides at safety," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said during the spring. "He's very rangy, he's very physical, he's a good tackler. Thinking about in high school him basically playing quarterback the majority of the time, that football IQ is translating over to the defensive side of the ball. He's seeing things unfold, he's able to react well and we got a glimpse of that from him last year on special teams and now it's carrying over to defense."

— Danny Davis

Freshman Xavier Filsaime, safeties getting physical

The shells — shoulder pads and helmets — are now on for the Texas football team, and you could feel the uptick in intensity. A tackling drill by the safeties proved particularly physical, with true freshman Xavier Filsaime showing a willingness to stick his shoulder into a ball carrier and drive him into the ground. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Filsaime may be a candidate to redshirt based on the number of veterans 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 that happy about the start of practice in shells. Junior Michael Taaffe is still donning a green penny designating him as an injured player since he broke a bone in his left hand during the summer. He’s going through workouts but can’t engage in the more physical repetitions, which prompted him to vocally express his frustrations after he had to hold up from contact during the drill.

— Thomas Jones

Texas baseball player fitting in with the football team

At 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, Nik Sanders looks the part of a running back. Sanders, of course, is a catcher on the Texas baseball team who recently walked onto the football team as a dual-sport athlete.

Playing time might be tough to find for Sanders, a second-year college student who last played football in high school. The Texas depth chart is topped 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 for many of the drills that have been viewed during this fall camp's three media windows.

But Sanders is fitting in with the 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 walked onto the team. We met him in the T.A.N.C. where we eat lunch, so it wasn't like we met a new dude, he's just new in the room."

— Danny Davis

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