Texas running backs Keilan Robinson and Jonathon Brooks prioritize winning above carries

Long-time Inside Texas contributor, Bill Frisbie, returns this week to help with team coverage from Austin media availabilities.

Steve Sarkisian prefers a featured ball carrier, and one is expected to emerge from a loaded, yet inexperienced running backs room, sophomore Jonathon Brooks said Wednesday.  Is Brooks the bell-cow for this year’s Longhorns?

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“We’re all hungry for the (starting) spot,” Brooks said, “but we don’t care who starts. We’re all working. We’re not talking behind somebody’s back. We’re all in it together.”

“Hunger” was the operative word when both Brooks and senior running back Keilan Robinson met with members of the media following Wednesday’s practice. The craving, though, has to do with a team that is ravenous for a championship season rather than any particular back wanting to be fed the ball.

“It doesn’t matter how many bites somebody takes this season, everybody’s gonna get to eat,” Robinson said. “Everybody’s going to have their shot. That’s the way we look at it.”

Brooks ran for 197 yards and five touchdowns on just 30 carries last season. He did most of the damage at Kansas where he carried for 108 yards and two touchdowns on 11 totes.  Yet, it was Robinson who got the starting nod, and lion’s share of the snaps, in the Alamo Bowl last December.

There’s been no mention of tailback-by-committee, although the senior said the only appreciable difference between this year’s offense, compared to 2022 when Bijan Robinson was the face of the program, is “a lot more people are touching the ball.”  

The ball is being spread around, Brooks said, because “there’s a lot of talent in that room, and everyone has their different types of run-styles.”

The room, of course, is bolstered by true freshman CJ Baxter, widely regarded as the nation’s top running back in the 2023 recruiting class. The game is starting to slow down for Baxter, Robinson said, so that “he can play faster. (Tuesday) was his best practice. I’d say he’s becoming more confident and getting better every day.”

Robinson was deployed as a versatile, change-of-pace, scatback during the 2022 regular season. He played in all 13 games, but was more highly regarded as a special teams dynamo (averaging 25.2 yards per kickoff return) while setting a career-high 20 catches for 219 yards.

“I feel like, with my speed, I’m always one or two steps ahead of the defender,” Robinson said. “I’ve always had a knack for finding the end zone.”

Meanwhile, Brooks sees his strength being able to “make the first guy miss.”  He had just six carries for 18 yards in the season’s finale against Washington but was battling a nagging hernia issue.  He underwent successful surgery a week after the bowl game.  There may be a silver lining to the surgery that sidelined Brooks during the first half of spring ball.

Said Brooks, “It was difficult not being to be out there and doing what I love, but it helped me to become more intentional, and more focused, with the details.”

The “details” included improving his pass-protection skills and doing a better job of running behind his pads. 

“When I first got here, I was running a little high,” Brooks acknowledge. “When I was in high school, I didn’t get hit as much. But, when I got here, I got hit and I realized I had to get my pads down. 

These days, it seems Brooks is lowering his pads while raising his voice. Brooks is “definitely” a vocal leader of the running back room, Robinson acknowledged. “He’s taken a big step in leadership this year. He’s no longer an underclassman. He’s taking it by the reins and is becoming a better leader, day by day.”

The craving for a championship season runs across the board, starting with the large human beings up front.  The thing that makes this year’s offensive line distinct from previous seasons is “the hunger to want to block,” Brooks said. “The whole team is really close, and I can see it in (the line) that they want to win just as bad as everyone else.”

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Added Brooks, “I just want the team to win, whether that’s me getting five carries or 20 carries. It really doesn’t matter to me.  I just want to win. I want to do my role, whether that’s special teams, running the ball, or catching the ball. I want to win.”