Quinn Ewers, Texas’ starting quarterback, may have returned, but one of the best running backs in the nation, Jonathan Brooks, is now out for the whole campaign.
During Saturday’s 29-26 victory over TCU, Brooks, who has been having a breakout year for the Longhorns, sustained a ruptured ACL in his right knee. With 10 games completed, the third-year runner had amassed 1,139 yards of rushes (sixth-best nationally) and was averaging 113.9 yards per game (seventh-best), solidifying his status as a top 2024 NFL draft candidate. With 11 touchdowns to his name, he leads the team and is a big part of the reason that No. 7 Texas is 9-1 and vying for both a Big 12 championship and a College Football Playoff ticket.
With two games remaining in the regular season, Texas will play Texas Tech on Friday night and Iowa State on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app.
“We are devastated to lose Jonathan for the season,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said to media on Monday. “Although he is an exceptional football player, he is a better man than a football player. He can catch the ball out of the backfield like a weapon because he is an excellent runner and pass protector, which naturally creates a void.
“But that also creates opportunity.”
The opportunity specifically is there for freshman CJ Baxter, who came to Texas out of Florida ranked as the No. 1 running back in the country. Entering the season, it was Baxter who was actually deemed the immediate replacement for first-round pick Bijan Robinson. Then he suffered a rib injury in the season opener against Rice, came back the next week to play Alabama, but picked up a foot injury that he had been dealing with ever since.
Up until now, that is, as Sarkisian said on Monday, that Baxter is 100% healthy.
“Timing is pretty incredible,” Sarkisian said. “I’d feel really uncomfortable if this would have happened a month ago.”
Baxter has only missed one game this season — against Wyoming in Week 3 — and is second on the team with 390 rushing yards. He’s scored three rushing touchdowns, most recently a 54-yard bolt to the end zone in a dramatic 33-30 overtime win over Kansas State.
Last Saturday after Brooks was injured, Baxter picked off a safety blitz on third-and-12 late in the fourth quarter that allowed Ewers to hit receiver Adonai Mitchell deep for a 35-yard completion, which Sarkisian said “excited him most.”
“Pass protection is probably the biggest thing for a young man making the transition from high school to college and then from college to the NFL,” Sarkisian said.
Sarkisian has been impressed by Baxter’s maturity and noted that the freshman tailback is in the top “2-3% on the team in terms of work ethic and wanting to get better.”
Texas has more depth behind Baxter, too, with Jaydon Blue, Keilan Robinson and Savion Red. Blue had a 34-yard touchdown run that clinched the win over BYU, Robinson plays fast and is an asset on special teams, while Red has been incorporated into Texas’ wildcat package.
“We feel comfortable that we have those four guys, that core [group] of guys,” Sarkisian said.
The Longhorns are angling for their first Big 12 championship since 2009 on their way out of the league, but have been struggling to close out recent games. After holding multiple possession leads at halftime the past two weeks, Texas let its opponent back in the games, creating nervy situations. Over the weekend, Texas held a 26-6 edge over TCU at the break before the Horned Frogs outscored the Horns 20-3 in the fourth quarter and nearly made a comeback.
“We couldn’t sustain drives offensively, we were giving up chunk plays defensively, they were scoring quickly, and then we didn’t operate very good on special teams,” Sarkisian said. “It was out of character and unacceptable.”
As the offense began to lose steam in the fourth quarter, Sarkisian gave the order to run the ball every play for the remainder of the contest. It was okay if they had to attempt a field goal. Better still if they scored a touchdown. However, he intended to slow down TCU’s quick score.
How comfortable is Sarkisian to instruct Ewers to pass the ball more now that Brooks is out? The seasoned quarterback is returning to form following his recovery from a shoulder injury. Ewers was understandably sore after playing in his first game back in three weeks, but Sarkisian claimed on Monday that he was OK and continued to lead the attack.
He’s only going to continue to get better and get more healthy,” Sarkisian said, adding that his offensive line hasn’t allowed a sack in two weeks. Iowa State, however, has the conference’s best defense.
“We’re more than comfortable if the plan needs to be that we throw it around,” Sarkisian continued. “Our offensive line is more than capable, Quinn is more than capable, our receiving corps and tight ends [are too]. But every game is different in how people are going to try and defend us and what we need to do.
And sometimes trying to win the game isn’t always the sexiest course of action. But when everything is said and done, one statistic will stand out above the rest: is it a W or a L? And we will just not give up on our attempts to stack Ws.”
