The Texas Longhorns could have a potentially important piece of the secondary on the practice field as soon as Thursday, as Horns Digest is reporting that freshman cornerback Holton Hill could make his Longhorns debut.

Though a leg injury has kept the nation's No. 7 cornerback from practicing since fall camp started last Friday, he was reportedly running without any apparent difficulty at Tuesday's practice, which the school opened to the media, and received his clearance on Wednesday.

When Hill does make his first practice appearance in pads, he'll compete for playing time with fellow freshmen cornerbacks Kris Boyd and Davante Davis, as well as more experienced players like junior Bryson Echols and sophomore Antwuan Davis. The stakes are the other cornerback job opposite of senior Duke Thomas, though when the team was working with a 4-3 alignment in practice, head coach Charlie Strong was playing redshirt freshman John Bonney at the second cornerback spot since the nickel position wasn't on the field.

So players like Davis and perhaps Boyd could be in the mix for the nickel spot if Bonney ends up staying outside, though that scenario seems unlikely after Bonney played so well there during the spring.

With Hill set to practice on Thursday or in the near future, the injury of concern in the secondary is the toe injury sustained by freshman DeShon Elliott over the weekend. Strong said that he would have an MRI earlier this this week, but the results of that scan are not yet public.