Steve Sarkisian shares injury update on Jalen Catalon entering bye week

Texas fans can rest easy. On Monday, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian provided a positive update on standout safety Jalen Catalon.

“[Catalon], right now, I think is kind of day-to-day to see how responds coming out of the ball game,” Sarkisian told the press. “We feel his presence when he’s out there but we got to make sure he’s healthy enough to go do that.”

Catalon has been a leader on Texas’ defense this season. The Arkansas transfer boasts 15 tackles and a forced fumble in five games. Nonetheless, fans worried about Catalon’s condition after he was slow to get up following a collision early in Texas’ 34-30 loss to Oklahoma on Saturday.

This isn’t the first time Catalon has struggled with injury issues. The redshirt senior missed most of the past two seasons due to shoulder injuries which required surgery. Now, Catalon is teetering on the edge of the IR once again.

While Sarkisian doesn’t expect Catalon to miss time, he isn’t concerned for Texas’ defense if the worst comes to fruition.

“The depth is helpful for us we can roll a lot of people we can rotate a lot of guys, especially predicated on they’ve all got a little bit of a different skillset,” Sarkisian said.

The Longhorns’ defensive prowess didn’t shine through in their loss to the Sooners. Oklahoma rattled off 486 yards in the win, including 285 passing yards. Moreover, Texas couldn’t squeeze a single turnover out of the Sooners.

Steve Sarkisian stays optimistic about Texas’ future

Sarkisian isn’t letting the disappointing outcome discourage him.

“Tip my cap to Oklahoma,” Sarkisian said after the game. “That was a nice win for them, to battle back at the end the way that they did. I think one thing I never question about our group and these guys here is their fight, their resiliency, and they absolutely displayed that today when we didn’t play our best football today. We turned the ball over three times. We didn’t create any turnovers. We had nine penalties which was very uncharacteristic for us.

“The promising thing is I know we can play better than we played today, and we will. We need to coach better. We need to play better than we did today. We’ve got to take it one game at a time moving forward. Proud of the guys. Proud of the way they battled and competed. But we need to play better football if we want to be the team I know we’re capable of being.”

Texas’ season will move forward with or without Catalon. After a hard-earned bye week, Texas will take on Houston on Oct. 21 at 4 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on FOX.