A confident Jaydon Blue is tasked with a new role in the wake of CJ Baxter's injury

Running back Jaydon Blue doesn’t lack confidence. When asked Tuesday who he thought was the fastest player on the team, he without hesitation replied “you ask me, I think I am.”

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That confidence isn’t limited to the football field. His teammates recently commented that Blue was the one talking the most trash during a team pickleball outing. But Blue had the ability to back up his confidence.

“I’m a very competitive guy, and when I found out we were going I told everybody that I was going to be hard to beat there and I was going for everybody,” Blue said. “It turns out that I didn’t lose a game. They were talking a lot of trash to me on the side and I just started playing better as they were talking trash.”

That confidence will come in handy as Blue ostensibly takes over as Texas’ RB1 in the wake of a season-ending injury to fellow back CJ Baxter. It will also be put to good use after Blue waited his turn to be a focal point of the Longhorn offense.

Blue, a preseason third-team All-SEC selection, tallied 15 carries for 33 yards during his freshman year in 2022. Opportunities were few and far between for the Klein (Texas) Cain four-star with future pros like Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson, Keilan Robinson, and Jonathon Brooks ahead of him on the depth chart.

Plus, Blue had to get re-acclimated to football. He elected not to play during his senior season at Cain, something not often seen at the high school level. During the early portions of his Longhorn career, lessons learned via Robinson, Johnson, Robinson, and Brooks helped Blue to become the team leader and looked-toward player he is one week into Longhorns training camp.

“Two years ago I was behind two guys who are in the NFL,” Blue said. “Last year, I was behind a group of guys that led that room and taught me the way it goes. Just learning from those guys and me taking on that role brings in a lot of confidence to those young guys in that room.”

Blue hopes to emulate Brooks as much as possible. Brooks, one class ahead of Blue, recorded 51 total carries across 2021 and 2022 before his breakout, 1139-yard season in 2023 that vaulted him up NFL Draft boards.

Like Brooks, Blue received some opportunities in his second season in 2023 especially once Brooks was lost for the year after the TCU game. Blue ended up with 79 total touches for 533 yards and four touchdowns, several of those scores taking place in important late-season contests. Blue hopes to turn that confidence into results during what he believes could be a breakout season similar to Brooks’ 2023.

“I always use JB as an example,” Blue said. “He didn’t play much in his first two years and then he played a lot last year. He went to the league after one year. I always look back at that and it puts a lot of belief in me that if I just stay patient and work, everything I want will be there.”

Confidence doesn’t make development happen, no matter how much Blue possesses. He understood that, whether Baxter was going to be playing or not, there were areas his game needed improvement in order to make a sought-after jump. Thanks to running backs coach Tashard Choice, Blue felt he made physical and developmental progress over the summer.

“Something I wanted to do was gain more weight to get bigger,” Blue said. “I talked to Choice a lot, and two things was to work on my eyes and being able to pass protect. He always says if you can’t pass protect then you can’t play running back. We take a lot of pride in pass protection in that room.”

Playing physically is something Blue also needs to prepare for, especially if he’s taking over as RB1. He had a taste of that last season with 27 rushes in the A- or B-gaps for 213 yards and two touchdowns, including his 69-yard score against Texas Tech. That’s something where the weight gains come in handy for the 6-foot-0, 200-pounder.

Especially for a back with Blue’s speed at that size. Blue hit 22.3 mph on that rush against the Red Raiders, which would have him as one of the fastest players in the nation and not just on the Longhorns.

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Blue will have some new help in shouldering some of Baxter’s workload, too. Tre Wisner, Jerrick Gibson, and Christian Clark are expected to play a much larger role than originally anticipated before Baxter’s injury.

That written, Blue will need to be confident for them off the field and confident for Texas on the field as the Longhorns turn toward him in the wake of Baxter’s injury.