Already without star pass rusher Colin Simmons for a second straight game, the Texas Longhorns suffered more attrition during Saturday’s 31-3 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs when numerous players left the game and did not return.
“Graceson Littleton didn’t finish the game. Cam Coleman didn’t finish the game. Kade Phillips didn’t finish the game. Hollywood Smothers didn’t finish the game. Ryan Wingo didn’t finish the game. So, all integral parts of the team,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian
said after the game.
Littleton only played 10 snaps before spending the rest of the game on the sideline without his helmet. After trying to get loose at halftime, Littleton was not able to return as senior cornerback Bo Mascoe moved to nickel.
Coleman also played 10 snaps before leaving the game, by which point he’d already impacted the with a 47-yard catch and run on the opening drive that he finished with a 14-yard touchdown reception. The Auburn transfer spent the second half in street clothes after trying to return from the shoulder injury he sustained against Ole Miss last week.
Phillips played 27 snaps, forcing freshman Smoke Matthews to see the most significant action of his career, recording two tackles in 39 snaps while allowing one catch for eight yards on two targets.
Smothers briefly made his return after missing the Ole Miss win with a shoulder injury, playing 14 snaps and losing six yards on four carries before he was helped off the field and went into the medical tent.
Wingo was able to play 42 snaps before leaving, recording three catches for 14 yards on six targets.
Sarkisian did not immediately know whether any of the injuries are serious.
“The severity of all those guys’ injuries is unknown at the moment,” he said.
The season’s only bye week came after the conference opener, leaving the Longhorns halfway through its stretch of eight games in eight weeks to end the season, what is already brutal to be a brutal stretch as Texas navigates a nine-game SEC schedule for the first time.
So the staff is likely to make some adjustments about how they practice to ensure that the injured players can return as quickly as possible and to ensure that everyone else is as healthy as possible, because all the players who are seeing significant snaps have some type of knock.
Put quarterback Arch Manning fully in that category after taking some big hits against Mississippi State — Manning was sacked five times, forced to scramble three times, and had four designed runs. Manning spent most of the game with a bloody hand.
“I don’t want him to have to endure that,” Sarkisian said. “I don’t want a bloody hand and him getting sacked five times. That’s not a recipe for success. Is he going to run it some? Yes. Do I think that’s part of his game? Yes. But there’s a line we got to be careful we don’t cross over with him, because we need him as healthy as he can be moving forward.”
Regaining some health with be a priority for the Longhorns before heading to Columbia.
“When I talk about what’s going to be the emphasis for this week, one of them is not only getting these guys back, but obviously Colin. The more of these guys we can get back, the better team we’re going to be, right?” Sarkisian said.
“And so that recovery has to start now for a lot of these guys. What are they doing right now after the game to start that process, and then into tomorrow and early in the week? We’ll have a better gauge midweek of where everybody is and what that looks like.”
