With two starters held out against the San Jose State Spartans and three more starters banged up during the game, the Texas Longhorns are starting to feel the impact of injuries after Saturday’s 38-7 win.
Fortunately for the Longhorns, head coach Steve Sarkisian’s post-game updates were largely positive.
Sarkisian said that junior running back Quintrevion Wisner was held out due to a leg injury and the desire to get more carries for redshirt freshman Christian Clark and sophomore Jerrick Gibson, who
combined for 14 of the 27 carries that Texas running backs received in the game.
“We just didn’t think it was the right thing to do, to kind of force the issue with him,” Sarkisian said. “I wanted Christian to play more, I wanted Jerrick to get opportunities, and so it worked out for us that way.”
Clark finished with seven carries for 21 yards in his Longhorns debut, while Gibson’s seven-carry, 38-yard effort was marred by his fourth career fumble late in the fourth quarter.
Texas also held out sophomore defensive tackle Alex January.
“Could we have pressed him into action or not? I know we’ve got a really deep defensive line room. Again, I think about the big picture here with a lot of these injuries, especially early in the season, I think about the long road that we’re hoping to go on, I think about the depth on our roster, and I just don’t feel like sometimes we have to press guys into action that aren’t healthy enough or that could further injure themselves. The idea was to hold him and then play some of these other guys, which were able to do, with the whole defensive line room played today, which was encouraging,” Sarkisian said.
During the third quarter, junior wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. was tackled hard on his right shoulder on a screen pass, going into the medical tent and then heading into the locker room after recording four catches for 30 yards.
“He got dinged. I couldn’t see it from where it occurred, but he definitely got dinged, and we held him after that,” Sarkisian said.
Later in the game, sophomore edge Colin Simmons and redshirt senior safety Michael Taaffe both left the game. Simmons received attention in the medical tent after landing awkwardly on his right shoulder making a tackle and Taaffe hobbled off with a knock to his lower body that didn’t appear serious.
Simmons indicated “I’m good” to ABC sideline reporter Katie George after emerging from the medical tent and appeared to be in good spirits after the game, although he was favoring his shoulder.
