In Mack Brown’s 12 seasons as Texas’ football coach, he said he’s played a true freshman on the offensive line only “a few times.”

Frenship product Mason Walters has gotten some playing time on the Texas Offensive line - rarity for freshmen.

“All of those guys have had great careers,” he added.

Frenship graduate Mason Walters is the latest member of the elite group, and Brown’s expectations for the 6-foot-6, 300-pound lineman are just as great. That’s why Walters entered the season as the Longhorns’ backup at right guard, and why his redshirt was burned in the first game of the year.

“His upside is really good, and he’s got a good chance to be a great player here at the University of Texas,” Brown said earlier this week. “We’re really excited about his future.”

Unfortunately for Walters, who was not made available for an interview by Texas’ media relations staff, his development has been stunted for the time being. He suffered a foot injury in UT’s season-opening win against Louisiana-Monroe — when Walters played most of the fourth quarter and on all of the Longhorns’ extra-point attempts — forcing him to miss last week’s game against Wyoming.

Brown said Walters also will be sidelined for Saturday’s Big 12 Conference opener against Texas Tech. Walters’ father, Marty, said his son is expected to be out for “a few weeks.”

“He was a little upset about it,” Marty Walters said. “I talked to him (Monday) night, and he’s taking it in stride.”

The injury aside, Marty Walters said his son’s first season as a college football player has been a thrill. Mason Walters enrolled at Texas last spring after graduating from Frenship a semester early, and he’s since been learning the ropes of the Division I level and beefing up by about 10 pounds.

Marty said he and his wife, Melinda, were impressed with their son’s bulked-up physique — “It kind of looks like he’s grown legs out of his shoulders,” he said — and that it was “pretty incredible” to see Mason trot on the field for the first time.

“He was really looking forward to it and really excited to get out there,” Marty said. “That was one of his goals was to make the team as a freshman, and he’s always pretty good at accomplishing the goals he sets for himself.”

Still, Marty said the quick transition from high school to major college ball hasn’t been entirely smooth for his son. And Mason recently told Frenship offensive line coach Landy Perkins that what the Tigers did in terms of training and schematics was “a drop in the bucket” compared to what the Longhorns do.

“He understood going down there he was a little fish in a big pond, and he gets humbled nearly every day in practice when he goes up against a senior,” Marty said. “… He says just about the time he really thinks he has it figured out, there’s always someone there to put him in his place.”

Perkins and Frenship head coach Brad Davis are confident that Mason will eventually hold his own, though, especially after watching him develop from a raw talent into one of the nation’s best offensive line prospects. Mason was a three-year starter at center for the Tigers — helping the team win three District 4-4A championships and go at least three rounds deep in the playoffs each year — and last fall he was The A-J’s All-City Offensive Player of the Year.

Davis said he knew Mason could be “something special” when he moved to Frenship from Plainview as a junior high student, primarily because of his rare combination of size and agility, and by the time he became a high school senior Mason also had developed into an unquestioned team leader.

“He was as good a leader for us last year as he was a football player,” said Perkins, who keeps in touch with Mason on a weekly basis. “He was a great leader in the locker room and did things right on and off the football field. I can’t say enough good things about him.”

Davis and Perkins said they miss Mason’s presence both in the trenches and in the fieldhouse, but they’re also proud to see him making it at the next level.

And they’re not at all surprised that he was able to take the field for Texas so quickly.

“Things have worked out for him because of how hard he’s worked to get to that position,” Davis said. “The University of Texas doesn’t play a true freshman unless he’s really standing out and making things happen and working his tail off in the weight room. Obviously, he’s doing all that.”

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