What kind of a season has it been for No. 7 Texas on the injury front leading up to the Big 12 championship game against No. 18 Oklahoma State on Saturday (11 a.m., ABC)? Last Friday’s 55-7 drubbing of Texas Tech saw reserve quarterback Maalik Murphy injure his non-throwing (left) shoulder on a sideline collision when he “got caught watching the game,” Steve Sarkisian said, while Keilan Robinson was in the process of taking the opening kickoff of the second half back for a 95-yard touchdown.
The 50-point win over the Red Raiders wrapping up the sixth 11-win regular season in school history is an impressive accomplishment on its own. But for the Longhorns to do what they did in the face of losing quarterback Quinn Ewers (shoulder) for two games in the middle of conference play, to lose running back Jonathon Brooks (knee) to a season-ending injury with two games to go in the regular season and for wide receiver Xavier Worthy (ankle), tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders (ankle), STAR Jahdae Barron (foot), EDGE Ethan Burke (knee) and cornerback Ryan Watts (hamstring, back) fighting through lingering ailments throughout the season is downright remarkable.
The good news for Texas (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) on that front is Sarkisian said Thursday during his weekly Zoom media availability that other than defensive back and special teams ace Austin Jordan, who was injured in the regular-season finale, “everybody else is pretty status quo from what I touched on Monday.”
Sarkisian’s early-week injury update had Worthy’s status as “good to go,” Murphy was back on the practice field and Watts was listed as questionable to face the Cowboys. The most significant of the injuries was the one Watts suffered on the first play from scrimmage against Texas Tech when he appeared to take a blow to the top of his head, forcing him to remain down on the turf for a few minutes before he was able to get to his feet, at which time he was escorted to the locker room for further evaluation.
After the game, Sarkisian said Watts was dealing with an injury to his lower back. Worthy has been nursing an ankle injury that forced him to miss the fourth quarter of the team’s 26-16 road win over Iowa State on Nov. 18 and the same goes for Sanders, who had his left ankle rolled up while blocking on a running play in the first quarter of the team’s 40-14 win over then-No. 23 Kansas on Sept. 30.
One week after rushing for a season-high 117 yards in the win over the Cyclones, CJ Baxter yielded second-half carries to Jaydon Blue, Savion Red and Tre Wisner due to a hip pointer. Sarkisian said Baxter could’ve gone back into the game, but the decision was made to hold the true freshman out with the outcome no longer in doubt by the time he was ready to get back on the field.
The physical grind it takes to make it through a regular season of Power Five football is clear and no team in the country is completely health in early December. Texas, thankfully, has developed enough quality depth that none of the aforementioned injuries derailed the team’s quest to snap the longest drought between conference championships in school history (13 seasons).
The mental grind, however, also has to be managed for a team to get to this point. As important as it is to maintain proper nutrition and sleep in addition to utilizing the tools available to players to treat injuries, Sarkisian was cognizant of the importance of his team remaining loose along their journey, which has them on the cusp of exiting the Big 12 with the program’s fourth league crown in tow.
That’s one area where Sarkisian’s focus on developing and maintaining good relationships with his players translates to success on the field. The combination of being able to let his hair down when he’s around his players and the focus throughout the year on the importance of mental intensity and focusing on the right things in meetings and walkthroughs has created a dynamic where the Longhorns can compartmentalize and live in the moment with the proper frame of mind.
Even if that’s taking their minds off of a Saturday night game, which Sarkisian helps happen by getting his players away from football during the team’s movie night on a given Friday night.
“I know that sounds a little old school or corny and some of the movies are good and some of them aren’t very good, I’ll be honest with you,” Sarkisian said. “But in the end, just hearing the conversations on the bus about the movie — nobody’s talking about how we’re going to cover the kickoff or how we’re going to block this, that [or] whatever. We [will] go do that Saturday morning in the hotel.
“I think having those moments to make sure that they’re loose enough is big, but I also think that we try to really impress upon them [that] you can play loose and you can play fast and you can play physical when you know what to do,” he added. “Our players have gained confidence in [themselves]. ‘When I know what to do, I can be a little bit more loose because I can’t wait for that opportunity to present itself because I know how I’m going to play the play.’
“Our guys have bought into that, and then I think they continue to pick each other up, to give each other confidence that they’re more than capable to play at a high level.”