Spring Storyline: The next stage of the Longhorn run game
Jonathon Brooks went down with his season-ending knee injury during the TCU game, leaving the Longhorn run game in the hands of CJ Baxter and Jaydon Blue. In the following four contests against Iowa State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and Washington, those two rushed 87 times for 500 yards and four touchdowns. Baxter rushed for 20 times for 117 yards against Iowa State in the first game after Brooks’ injury, and Blue eclipsed 100 yards (and 22 mph) versus Texas Tech.
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With Brooks off to the NFL, the 2024 Longhorn running game will be in the hands of Baxter and Blue like it was at the end of the 2023 season. That duo, along with Tre Wisner, Savion Red, Jerrick Gibson, and Christian Clark will have to ensure Steve Sarkisian can maintain his play-action deep shot-centric offense as the Longhorns embark on the SEC.
Sarkisian likes to boast that he’s produced a 1000-yard rusher every year that he’s been an offensive play-caller. That’s not 100 percent true, but he has a very consistent track record producing running backs who tally over 1000 total yards. To his credit, he has produced 1000-yard rushers in all three seasons he’s been at Texas with Brooks in 2023 and Bijan Robinson in 2021 and 2022.
Ahead of 2024, Baxter appears to be the Longhorns’ best chance to continue that streak. Baxter started the 2023 season as the Longhorns’ starter anyway, but he saw his workload decrease due to injuries suffered in the opening two games against Rice and Alabama and because of the surge of Brooks over the course of the beginning of conference play.
Listed at 6-foot-1, 218 pounds, Baxter rushed 138 times for 659 yards and five touchdowns. He also caught 24 passes for 156 yards. During the 2022 season where he played in 12 games, Robinson tallied 258 carries as the bell cow of the Longhorn offense.
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Will Baxter have to rush 250 or more times? Probably not considering what Blue showed at the end of the season.
After only 15 carries in his 2022 season, Blue became a playmaker for the Longhorns in 2023. He rushed 65 times for 398 yards and three touchdowns, also adding a receiving touchdown during his sophomore season. Blue was trusted in the Iowa State game to close things out, gaining critical yardage needed in the contest’s waning moments to ice a Texas victory in Ames. He also became a major component of the Longhorn offense during the late stages of the season, making a number of key plays in the Big 12 Championship and in the Sugar Bowl.
Those two, as well as the rest of Tashard Choice‘s group, will have the benefit of an offensive line returning four starters and a number of experienced trench players. They’ll also have the advantage of a third-year Quinn Ewers threatening defenses enough to keep two safeties deep in most situations.
Sarkisian prefers to have a bell cow back, and Baxter fits the profile of a RB1 for Sark. But even if Baxter takes on a significant amount of the workload, Blue and a host of others will be major components of the Longhorns’ first SEC offense.
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