A football player’s junior season has the potential to sink or strengthen their draft stock.
A great year can rocket them to the top of NFL draft boards, but a bad one can shroud what they earned in their first two years with questions. Even worse, an injury could dash their NFL hopes before they’ve even materialized.
It’s a lot of pressure, especially for players like Texas’ Kelvin Banks Jr., who came out of the gate sprinting and never slowed down. He isn’t thinking about that, though.
“I try to focus on what I’m doing right now,” he said at his SEC Media Days availability. “So I just try to focus on every little step, and right now that’s finishing the offseason and going into camp.”
Banks was the No. 2 offensive tackle in the country when he committed to the Longhorns in 2022, and he lived up to the hype, earning honorable mention Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year and Offensive Lineman of the Year honors after his first season in Austin. His sophomore year, he was a first-team All-Big 12 selection and second-team All-American as awarded by the American Football Coaches Association.
With an impressive list of accolades under his belt, Banks projects as a top-10 pick in the 2025 NFL draft. That is, if he forgoes his remaining collegiate eligibility. The Humble Summer Creek product is coy about whether this will be his final season in Austin, as was head coach Steve Sarkisian, who said, “He’s going to be a high draft pick whenever that day comes.”
When that day comes, it will be in no small part due to how he handles himself off the field.
“If there’s anybody in our program that I would say, ‘Hey, go emulate that guy, the way he handles his business, on the field, off the field, the way he works, first guy there, last guy off the field,’ that’s Kelvin Banks,” Sarkisian said. “The way he’s carried himself has been super impressive. His play shows on Saturdays, but it’s who he is Sunday through Friday that really makes up why he plays that way on Saturday.”
Still, the question of whether Banks will declare for the draft will surely swirl this season, and unfinished business may become a factor. Sarkisian emphasized that this year’s Longhorns team is “obsessed” with finishing what the 2023 team started: winning a national championship.
“They got a taste of what it can taste like, of being a Big 12 champion, playing in a College Football Playoff, and we fell short,” Sarkisian said. “This idea of obsession, the obsession that our players have is one that really came from them. They couldn’t wait to get back to work. They couldn’t wait to get back in the weight room.”
Banks says that obsession is shown in the little things: cleaning up the locker room, treating your body right by going to the trainer and getting close with your teammates. It’s an apt perspective for a player focused on leading his team in the here and now, and that’s what he expects from himself this season.
“In my exit meetings, they harped on me, ‘Hey, we need you to become not just a physical leader. We need you to become vocal.’ So [I’m] just making sure I hold guys accountable … and even myself,” he said. “Just making sure I stay consistent, not getting complacent at all and just focusing on what you’re doing at the moment and getting everything out the game that you can.”
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