Steve Sarkisian updates status of Texas OL Denzel Okafor

Texas offensive lineman Denzel Okafor will have season-ending surgery this week, according to Steve Sarkisian. The Longhorns head coach announced the unfortunate update today.

Okafor suffered the injury on Saturday, when he was carted off in the first quarter of the Longhorns matchup with TCU.

Early in the game, Okafor appeared to suffer a leg injury on running back Bijan Robinson’s 27-yard rushing touchdown. At the time, it put Texas ahead 10-7.

Following the victory, Sarkisian provided an injury update on Okafor.

“I don’t have the specific on Denzel. I think that ideally it’s a lower-leg injury. To the extent, I’m not exactly sure right now and I don’t want to speak out of turn on that,” stated Sarkisian. “Hopefully we can get him back.”

Unfortunately, Sarkisian’s update revealed today that the guard’s season was over.

How will Texas replace Okafor?

With Okafor going down with an injury, the Longhorns were forced to adjust on the fly. In his place, Sarkisian moved starting right tackle Derek Kerstetter to left guard and moved Andrej Karic to right tackle. 

After defeating TCU, the Longhorns head coach spoke about how they played in Okafor’s absence.

“Obviously getting Andrej — that was a lot of football that he got to play. Moving Kerstetter to guard. I thought we had moments where we played pretty good up-front,” said Sarkisian. “I thought there were moments where we were a little leaky. Again, that’s a good defensive football team. We got to look at the tape to see where some of the main issues occurred. But I didn’t feel like it was just some drastic change with Andrej coming into the game.”

Denzel Okafor is a sixth-year senior, and he started every game for the Longhorns prior in 2021. He entered the 2021 season with 48 appearances, making 14 starts.

Now, his Longhorns career looks to have come to an untimely end.