How Tarik Black fits on the Texas depth chart

With the addition of former Michigan Wolverines graduate transfer wide receiver Tarik Black on Tuesday, the Texas Longhorns will now have a senior pass catcher on the roster for the 2020 football season.

In fact, Black and junior Brennan Eagles are the only two upperclassmen among the nine wide receivers, so Black provides some much-needed experience on the outside after Collin Johnson and Devin Duvernay both exhausted their eligibility with the Alamo Bowl victory.

So, how does Black fit into the Texas depth chart? Here goes.

Since the No. 7 is open on offense for the Horns and Black wore that number with the Wolverines, that’s the guess for now on the number he will wear in burnt orange and white.

The more important question, of course, is whether he’ll be able to win a starting job. Or, if not, how he’ll fit into the rotation for wide receivers coach Andre Coleman in Coleman’s first season in that role on the Forty Acres.

With some significant buzz coming out of the program about sophomore wide receiver Joshua Moore following his suspension last season as a result of a gun charge, the guess here is that Moore will be ahead of Black initially — there will be an adjustment when preseason camp starts for the Michigan transfer.

However, Black does have more experience and he’s also listed as 46 pounds heavier than Moore, who apparently never put on that 10 pounds of muscle last year that was indicated on the roster. So if Coleman and offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich want a more physical blocker at the Z position in the wide receiver screen game or someone with more experience and strength to get off press coverage, Black presumably has a significant advantage in those areas.

Black could also slide over to the X position at times to back up Eagles or just switch positions with him if Yurcich and his staff believe that Eagles has a better match up at Z.

And even though Moore is a supremely twitched-up athlete, Black tested well in high school, too, posting an elite 4.08 shuttle at about 10 pounds less than his current playing weight of 216 pounds, as well as a 36.4-inch vertical leap. Make no mistake — Black was such a highly-considered recruit out of Connecticut in no small part because of that athleticism.

As a result, however Black is used by the Longhorns, it’s clear that he fills a need at the wide receiver position and the staff deserves credit for landing Black despite the fact that he was never able to take a visit to Austin.