Texas' Ja'Tavion Sanders was among the 48 tight ends on the preseason watch list for the Mackey Award announced Friday.

UT has never produced a Mackey winner. The award has been given annually to the nation's top tight end since 2000. This is the second straight year that Sanders has appeared on the preseason watch list.

The inclusion of Sanders on last year's list was more about pedigree than production. He was a five-star prospect during the 2021 recruiting cycle, and he appeared in 12 games as a freshman. He didn't record a single catch, though.

One year later, it's hard to argue with Sanders' candidacy. As a sophomore, he was a semifinalist for the Mackey. He also recorded arguably the best season ever for a Texas tight end.

"I think he's going to improve more," wide receiver Jordan Whittington said during the spring.

Looking for more after a big 2022

Over 13 games last season, Sanders became a favored target for quarterbacks Quinn Ewers and Hudson Card. Receiver Xavier Worthy even threw him a touchdown pass on a trick play.

Sanders finished the year with 54 receptions for 613 yards and five touchdowns. The 54 catches were a single-season record for a Texas tight end, a position group that has now produced just three 40-catch seasons in UT’s rich history. The 613 yards ranked behind only the 637 that William Harris produced in 1984.

Ahead of the Alamo Bowl, Sanders was asked about the company he was keeping among Texas' all-time tight ends. You know, David Thomas and Jermichael Finley, Pat Fitzgerald and Bo Scaife. At the time, Sanders said it would be an honor to bypass the 50-catch standard that Thomas set in 2005.

He then added: "My goal for next year is to break my own record and to exceed that even more."

A few months later, Sanders told the assembled media after one of UT's spring practices that "I've been in grind mode. I'm ready to show the world what I'm really capable of. Last year was my opening season, and I'm ready to show my full story now."

Getting better after the catch

This offseason, Sanders said he focused on what he could do to break tackles and gain yards after the catch. Over the final seven games of UT's 2022 season, Sanders caught 29 passes and recorded 330 receiving yards. But despite his 6-foot-4, 243-pound frame, Sanders broke a tackle on just two of those 29 plays and did not score.

Sanders said he took offense at that.

"Since high school, I feel like the first person should never tackle me," he said.

So finding a way to improve his yards after catch became a focus for this offseason.

"I left a lot of plays out on the field last year for sure," Sanders said. "You look at (NFL tight ends such as) Travis Kelce and George Kittle, they get all the yards off of YAC, not on the initial catch, so that was my big emphasis."

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian echoed Sanders' self-assessment: "He's a big, physical guy. He's very athletic. We're trying to get him to use his body more once the ball is in his hands. I think we're seeing that. He's much more physical right now with the ball in his hands than he's ever been in the first couple years here."

Sarkisian also hinted at a few additional ways that Sanders could improve this fall.

"JT's got a really high football IQ, so the more we can move him around and to give him different route opportunities, that part's been helpful," said Sarkisian, who was Washington's head coach when Austin Seferian-Jenkins won the Mackey in 2013 and USC's offensive coordinator when Fred Davis was honored in 2007. "Run game-wise, there's still an evolution to his game where he can take it to another level from a blocking perspective."

Hoping for an even bigger, better season

Over the past five years, the Mackey Award winner has averaged 62 receptions, 919 yards and a little more than six touchdowns. Georgia's Brock Bowers, who will attempt to become the first two-time winner this season, had 63 catches, 942 yards and seven touchdowns during his 2022 campaign.

Can Sanders match those numbers this fall? He'll have to contend for targets in an offense that boasts plenty of depth at the receiver position. Whittington and Worthy are back, and the Longhorns have added Georgia transfer Adonai Mitchell and freshman Johntay Cook II to the mix.

Texas tight ends coach Jeff Banks conceded this week that Sanders might see fewer looks this fall but said, "It's not necessarily about the opportunities as much as it is about taking advantage of the ones he gets."

He noted that while Sanders caught a lot of screen passes last season, he thinks the tight end's strength will be using his size to contribute in the vertical passing game.

"He might have less catches, (but) he might have more yards and more touchdowns, and that's what we're looking for," Banks said. "I'm super excited with the maturity he showed after having a good season. Sometimes you see they come in and they have a lapse or they're lackadaisical or they feel like they've arrived. He's the opposite. He just continued to push, push, push and had a great summer."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Ja'Tavion Sanders builds off 2022 breakout for Texas football team