Texas receiver Silas Bolden brings sprinter speed, sticky hands and sizable ambition
Oregon State transfer believes, ‘I feel like playing in the SEC is going to show everyone who I really am’
Standing 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighing 160 pounds soaking wet, Silas Bolden wouldn’t intimidate any of those big, ol’ SEC meanies. He’s harmless, right? A gnat on Bevo’s rear.
Good luck catching him.
“You better not miss. He got jets. He will go to the house,” Texas defensive back Malik Muhammad said. “You better not miss.”
What’s it like when someone does? “I really don’t want to speak on it,” Muhammad said with intense gravity, “but I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
Texas has deployed small receivers before. They become fan favorites. But rare are they as electric as the Oregon State transfer who arrives in Austin as an All-Pac 12 return specialist with sprinter speed, sticky hands and sizable ambition.
Bolden had 80 catches for 1,076 receiving yards and nine touchdowns the last three seasons with the Beavers. He rushed 21 times for 202 yards (9.6 average) and scored four times on the ground. Last season, he tallied 1,319 all-purpose yards and was second-team All-Pac 12 on special teams.
This dude can fly, weaving through traffic with precision.
“Silas, he makes strong catches,” defensive back Jahdae Barron said. “Yeah, he may be little, but he has a lot of heart to him. I love Silas.”
Latest from Steve Sarkisian confirms that running back injuries are stress testing Texas’ offensive depth
With CJ Baxter, Christian Clark injured, Longhorns looking at all options for depth
The quarterback agrees. “Jahdae is correct on all those things,” Quinn Ewers said. “He’s been balling out. It’s cool to see a guy like him do the things that he does.”
Bolden was one of 25 players that left Oregon State after last season. Only 12 landed at Power Four schools. Bolden chose Texas in part because he wanted to play on a bigger stage. What better place than the SEC?
“That’s what I came to Texas to do,” Bolden told the 3rd and Longhorn podcast this summer. “At Oregon State nobody knew who I was. I'm always kind of the underdog. I feel like playing in the SEC is going to show everyone who I really am.”
His confidence alone is spellbinding. “I’m bringing speed, someone being a willing blocker, someone who is going to make a play every time I touch the ball, so I just can't wait to put on the shield.”
It’s hard to standout in a room that could be seven receivers deep. And yet, Bolden has done it. “When he first got here, I could just tell how much he cared about the game of football and how much he really wants to succeed,” Ewers said.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Bolden has “unbelievable” work ethic, and this is not a coach prone to hyperbole.
“Football matters to him. He's very serious about it,” Sarkisian said. “He has a great deal of experience, and he has a great deal of experience in an NFL style offense. A lot of our concepts and things that we do aren't foreign to him.
“He has elite speed, clearly,” the coach added. “He's a fearless player, so we don't view him as a specialty player. We view him as a regular every-down player like any other receiver, and I think he's going to have a real impact on our team this fall.”
