Wednesday’s SEC-mandated player availability report revealed the Texas Longhorns senior running back Hollywood Smothers is out for Saturday’s matchup against the Missouri Tigers in Columbia. A Thursday report from On Texas Football revealed that Smothers will miss the remainder of the season with a torn MCL.
Anwar Richardson of Orangebloods first reported
on Sunday that Smothers sustained a knee injury in the win over Mississippi State. Richardson also confirmed that Smothers won’t play again this season.
The torn knee ligament ends a lost, injury-plagued season for Smothers, who missed the Tennessee game with a lower-body injury and the Ole Miss game with a shoulder injury.
Despite missing those two games, Smothers is second on the team in rushing yards with 283 yards and two touchdowns on 69 carries, but the expectations for the 5’11, 193-pounder were much higher after he flipped from Alabama during the offseason. Smothers arrived on the Forty Acres ranked as the No. 3 running back in the portal by 247Sports and started the season as the team’s lead running back, rushing for 70 yards in the season opener and for 74 yards and two touchdowns in the comeback win over Ohio State. But his 2026 campaign ended after rushing four times for negative six yards against Mississippi State.
After starting his career at Oklahoma, Smothers transferred to NC State and had two productive seasons, rushing for 571 yards and six touchdowns on 6.4 yards per carry before notching a career-high 939 rushing yards with six more touchdowns last season.
The Charlotte product has one season of eligibility remaining.
