3 Things from Sark: Life after CJ Baxter, Saturday scrimmage, NFL-style availability reports

After Texas’ Thursday practice, Steve Sarkisian likes what he’s seen from his team with an important Saturday scrimmage on deck.

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“We’re making good strides across the board in all three phases,” Sarkisian said.

Here are three things to know from Sark after his Thursday press conference on the running back situation, Saturday’s scrimmage, and availability reports.

Next up at running back

The Longhorns lost CJ Baxter for the season after an injury suffered during practice on Tuesday. He’ll undergo surgery, and Sarkisian said the Longhorns will be without a player considered a top teammate on the roster.

“Obviously, we got some unfortunate news coming out of practice the other day with Cedric Baxter being lost for the season,” Sarkisian said. “I hate it for the kid. The same way I talked about Liona Lefau the other day, if you polled our team who the top three teammates on our team (were), Cedric Baxter would be in that top one, two, or three as well. As much as we love him for the player that he is, we love him more for the teammate that he is. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. We’re encouraged by all the doctors that he’s going to make a really healthy recovery and we’ll have him back for next season.”

This is why recruiting always matters. Tashard Choice has put together a deep running back room with Jaydon Blue, Tre Wisner, Jerrick Gibson, and Christian Clark waiting in the wings. Sarkisian didn’t touch on Blue all that much, and his status as the new No. 1 in the room is well known. But he went into detail on Wisner, Clark, and Gibson.

On Wisner, Sarkisian said the DeSoto product brings versatility to the room like he did for the Eagles on their state championship run back in 2022. He can split out wide and run between the tackles. While the public was limited in what they saw from Wisner, Sark loved what went on behind closed doors.

“We saw what he could do in practice,” Sarkisian said. “When he got his few shots there against Tech and against Oklahoma State, he ran hard, he ran physical, he ran fast. One thing he possesses is that he’s a really versatile player.”

With Gibson and Clark, there’s little uncertainty from Sark about their physical ability. But he did mention he wants to see more from them as far as making sure they have the nuances of the position down.

“Both of them are physical players,” Sarkisian said. “Jerrick is a work horse. He’s a very hard-nosed runner and tough. Christian’s got great one-cut ability. Both catch the ball out of the backfield. When you see them in person, you can just look at their lower halves. They’re put together. They’re very physical players. they’re strong. I have no hesitation running either of those guys between the tackles.”

Sarkisian will have more intel available to work with on Sunday after the Horns’ Saturday scrimmage. He mentioned that if there was any thought about moving a player from another position to running back, those conversations would wait until after the scrimmage.

Speaking of Saturday’s scrimmage…

Full pads. In DKR. Three weeks until the season. Sark is excited to see not only how his top-line players fare, but also those who will man the scout team for most of the 2024 season.

“It’s a fun one for us because everybody plays Saturday,” Sarkisian said. “All these guys have been practicing their tails off. We’ve been two-spotting everything. We’ve been four-deep with ones, twos, threes, and fours. It’s going to be a great opportunity for guys to play.”

Physical ability is never much of a question with a Sarkisian football team. That means Sark is going to have a keen eye on watching how players read and react without an assistant coach right over their shoulder.

“What I want to see is what do they know?” Sarkisian said. “The coaches aren’t on the field. Everybody’s off. They have to get the call. They have to communicate the call. They have to work together. How do they play when they get a little bit fatigued?”

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NFL style ability reports get Sark’s seal of approval

Intel on Baxter’s injury leaked out prior to the official announcement from the program. Things may look a little different in the future.

The SEC is moving toward mandatory injury reports due to a number of different factors but mainly focusing on online gambling.

What are Sarkisian’s thoughts?

“I am in favor of it,” he said. “I just think in college football, there are so many cat-and-mouse games. And not that there isn’t in the NFL. In the NFL, I say it all the time: they’ve done the studies, they’ve done the research, they understand whether it’s headset communication, whether it’s instant replay, whether it’s two-minute warnings, they do all that stuff for a reason.

“There’s a reason they have the injury report. Whether that’s for the opponent, whether that’s because now we don’t have to worry about leaks out of our building as it pertains to this new idea of online gambling and all the stuff that’s going on out there. This is where we’re at.

“Here’s who’s out. Here’s who’s questionable. Here’s who’s probable. Then we go from there. And if we don’t do it the right way, then fine us.”