CJ Baxter has eight rushing touchdowns for a 5-1 Kentucky Wildcats team. Trey Owens has thrown every pass the Arkansas State Red Wolves have attempted. Neto Umeozulu has started all six games for the North Texas Mean Green, and several other former Texas Longhrons offensive linemen have moved into starting lineups at their new schools.
Others are still waiting for a bigger role.
Here’s how all 17 offensive players who left Texas after last season are doing, and where each stands on his new team’s depth
chart.
Quarterback
Trey Owens, Arkansas State
Owens is getting the playing time that eluded him in Austin. He earned the starting role for head coach Butch Jones and has has thrown all 176 of Arkansas State’s passes this season, completing 121 for 1,461 yards with nine touchdowns and six interceptions, and he has run for 149 yards and two scores.
His biggest night came last week against South Alabama, led by former Texas quarterback and assistant Major Applewhite. Owens completed 32-of-43 passes for 418 yards, four touchdowns, and two interceptions in a 56-49 home loss. The Red Wolves are 2-4 and 0-2 in Sun Belt play.
Running backs
CJ Baxter, Kentucky
Baxter leads Kentucky with 484 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns on 87 carries, a 5.6-yard average. That’s more than the combined yardage of Texas running backs Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown. The former No. 1 running back in the 2023 recruiting class has also caught seven passes for 62 yards, giving him 546 yards from scrimmage for a 5-1 team that has won back-to-back overtime games against South Carolina and LSU.
In the win over the Tigers, Baxter had a 77-yard run, the longest of his career.
Jason Patterson is second on the team with 361 rushing yards, averaging 7.7 yards on 47 carries. Baxter has 40 more carries and five more rushing touchdowns than Patterson.
Quintrevion Wisner, Florida State
Wisner has a supporting role in Florida State’s backfield. Through six games he has 29 carries for 141 yards and eight catches for 95 yards, without a touchdown. That is second among the Seminoles’ running backs in carries, well behind Ousmane Kromah’s 100 attempts for 565 yards and five scores. Wisner has also played 27 snaps on special teams.
Kromah started Florida State’s 44-20 loss at Louisville on October 9. Wisner ran seven times for 20 yards and caught two passes for 19 that night. The Seminoles are 3-3.
Jerrick Gibson, Purdue
Gibson has appeared in all six of Purdue’s games without a start. He has 18 carries for 58 yards and two catches for 14 yards, with no touchdowns.
Fame Ijeboi has started every game and has 117 carries, and Antonio Harris has 23. Fourteen of Gibson’s carries came in Purdue’s three non-conference games and his longest run went for nine yards. In three Big Ten games, he has four carries for 14 yards.
Christian Clark, South Carolina
Clark has played in all six of South Carolina’s games as a reserve, with 13 carries for 57 yards and two catches for 14 yards. All of it came in the first three games. In SEC play, Clark has only played 14 snaps, carrying the ball once for one yard against Mississippi State.
Four other Gamecock running backs have more rushing yards.
Rickey Stewart Jr., Stephen F. Austin
Stewart has been a reserve in his first season in Nacogdoches. His individual rushing line shows 17 carries for 44 yards in four appearances, without a touchdown. The Tyler Chapell Hill product has played 28 snaps this season.
Jaylen Jenkins, Speedy Jones, and Preston Alford have each run for more than 280 yards in a deep SFA backfield. The Lumberjacks were unbeaten entering their open date last weekend.
Colin Page, North Texas
The former Texas walk on appeared in seven games over four seasons at Texas. He has played in three for North Texas, against Houston Christian, Tulsa and Charlotte, and got his first carries in the October 10 win over Charlotte: three runs for eight yards. Page has also played 17 snaps on special teams.
Jahiem White leads the Mean Green backfield with 687 yards and nine touchdowns on 96 carries and has started all six games. Page is not listed on North Texas’ most recent depth chart, issued for the Charlotte game, which has White, Brendon Haygood, and then Nick Osho or Adarion Nettles at running back.
Wide receivers
DeAndre Moore Jr., Colorado
Moore has started all five of Colorado’s games at receiver and is second on the team with 18 catches for 242 yards and a touchdown, behind Joseph Williams’ 32 receptions for 454 yards. His best day was a four-catch, 107-yard game with a touchdown against Weber State. He was held without a catch at Baylor.
Colorado is 2-3 and was idle October 10. Julian Lewis started the first four games at quarterback, and Isaac Wilson made his first Colorado start against Texas Tech on Oct. 3. Moore is listed first at one receiver spot on Colorado’s depth chart for its October 17 game against Utah.
Aaron Butler, Oregon State
Butler caught one pass in four games over two seasons at Texas. Through six games at Oregon State, he has 13 catches for 190 yards and a touchdown, plus four carries for 56 yards and another score. That score, a 30-yard run in the October 3 win at Colorado State, was the first rushing touchdown of his career.
He started at receiver alongside Jesse Legree and Bubba Hampton in the 66-14 win over San Diego State on Oct. 10 and caught two passes for 35 yards. Hampton, a one-time Texas commit, has 20 catches for 245 yards and one touchdown. The Beavers have won four straight after an 0-2 start.
Parker Livingstone, Oklahoma
Livingstone started against his former team in Oklahoma’s 27-24 win over Texas on October 10, playing 29 snaps without receiving a target. Through the Sooners’ first five games, he has six catches for 51 yards and no touchdowns. His receiving numbers trail Isaiah Sategna III, Rocky Beers, Trell Harris, and Hayden Hansen.
Jaime Ffrench Jr., Michigan
Ffrench has yet to catch a pass through Michigan’s first five games, playing just 18 snaps. He appeared as a reserve against Minnesota on Oct. 3, when JJ Buchanan, Andrew Marsh and Salesi Moa started at receiver, and the Wolverines were idle October 10.
Receivers coach Micah Simon said earlier that week that Ffrench had practiced well and could earn more opportunities, according to On SI.
Tight end
Jordan Washington, North Carolina
Washington has no receptions in North Carolina’s season statistics and is yet to appear in a game this season. RotoWire reported that an undisclosed injury kept him out of the October 3 game against Notre Dame, and ACCSports’ final availability report listed him out again for the October 10 game against Pittsburgh.
Jelani Thurman has become the Tar Heels’ leading receiving tight end.
Offensive line
Connor Stroh, Kansas
Stroh opened the season in a rotational role and has worked his way into Kansas’ starting lineup. The Jayhawks moved him ahead of Amir Herring at left guard before the October 3 game against Middle Tennessee, according to KU Sports, and he started again at Utah on October 10. The promotion gives him a starting job after three seasons at Texas.
Against the Utes, Stroh allowed two quarterback hits and two hurries while committing two penalties, grading at 31.8 in pass blocking, according to Pro Football Focus.
Neto Umeozulu, North Texas
Umeozulu has started all six games for 4-2 North Texas. The Mean Green’s game-by-game lineup chart lists him at right tackle for the first five before moving to left guard last week. He is the first-team right tackle on the team’s most recent depth chart. Per PFF, Umeozulu has allowed two quarterback hits and seven pressures while committing five penalties.
He appeared in 26 games over four seasons at Texas without making a start.
Nate Kibble, Baylor
Kibble earned Baylor’s starting left guard job. The Bears’ September 12 depth chart listed him first at left guard, and he was among Baylor’s starting offensive linemen in the October 3 win at Arizona State. Baylor was off last week. The 6’3, 333-pounder has allowed one sack, one quarterback hit, and six pressures.
Daniel Cruz, NC State
Cruz made his first career start at center against Louisville on October 3 and started again against Wake Forest a week later. His promotion came amid injuries on NC State’s offensive line, including to center Spike Sowells, and he played every offensive snap against Louisville, according to local reporting. He has gone from a reserve role to the starting lineup during ACC play, playing well as a pass blocker with only one quarterback hit allowed, but he has also committed two penalties.
Nick Brooks, Alabama
Brooks has appeared in all six of Alabama’s games as a reserve, splitting his work between special teams and limited snaps on the offensive line. His Alabama biography, updated through October 3, credits him with seven snaps on the line against East Carolina, three against Kentucky, and four at left tackle against Mississippi State, plus late offensive work against South Carolina.
He was listed among Alabama’s reserves again for the October 10 game against Georgia.
