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Steve Sarkisian "very confident" CJ Baxter will be ready for the Ohio State game

Joe Cookby:Joe Cook•about 22 hours•

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CJ Baxter
USA Today Network

Even the head coach of the Longhorns gets caught up in the hoopla of South by Southwest. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was on Cam Jordan‘s Off the Edge podcast and discussed a wide variety of subjects, but offered critical information about Cedric Baxter‘s recovery during an audience question and answer session.

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The audience question was, how is Cedric Baxter looking and will he be completely healthy for Ohio State?

“Cedric’s doing great,” Sarkisian said in a podcast episode released yesterday. “So you know, Cedric Baxter is a running back of ours that tore his ACL early in training camp last year. He was set to, I think, have a great season. His rehab is going fantastic. He looks really good. He’s in really good spirits.”

Baxter tore his ACL and LCL in early August, On3 reported. He was expected to be the No. 1 running back for the Longhorns prior to the injury.

During the leadup to the Peach Bowl, Baxter explained that things were “going good” in his rehabilitation.

“I’m pretty much doing everything, just slowly but surely,” Baxter said. “I just tell myself every day to do everything one day at a time. I’m not looking too far ahead.”

Baxter rushed 138 times for 659 yards and five touchdowns in 2023. He also caught 24 passes for 156 yards as a true freshman. He’s expected to be limited during the Longhorns’ upcoming Spring practices, but Sarkisian thinks there’s a good chance Baxter is suited up and on the sidelines when the Longhorns take the field to battle the Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus.

“Obviously, we have some time, right?” Sarkisian said. “For him, it’s essentially going to be a 12-month recovery, which is a great amount of time coming off of an ACL. We feel very confident that he will be. But time will tell, right? We’re in March, and we’ve got plenty of time until August 30th when we play. We’ve got plenty of time until then.”

Sarkisian spoke on a number of topics including the city of Austin, Arch Manning, his time with Pete Carroll and Nick Saban, and some of the NFC South battles he had versus Jordan’s Saints while he was offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons.

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The full video can be found here.

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