Texas football’s depth continues to be tested

By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas — Injuries to the Texas secondary and running backs have had a huge impact on the team this season, so it might come as a surprise to some that the Longhorns actually have had players miss fewer games because of injuries than they did through seven games in 2018 … and regardless of the number of injuries, No. 15 Texas is just a game off the pace it set last year when it finished 10-4, played for the Big 12 championship and beat Georgia in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

The Longhorns will have to [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]play much better, and they know it, when they travel to Fort Worth to square off Saturday against a desperate TCU team that has lost two straight games.

Texas coach Tom Herman lauded his team’s depth and overall quality of talent Monday at his weekly media availability as he addressed the Longhorns’ perceived run of crippling injuries.

“Our depth is critical, and you’re seeing it,” Herman said. “I had our training staff do a study through seven games. We actually have eight less documented injuries this year, and 107 less missed practices. They just all happened to be in one position this year, and it gets a bit frustrating when that kind of snowballs at certain positions. But that’s why you recruit the way you do.”

Herman said that Texas started nine freshmen or sophomores on defense against Kansas, but that for the most part his young players were up to the task.

“You’re going to be forced to play young guys, and those young guys (had) better be talented enough to go out there and win games for you and perform to the standard that is set at the University of Texas,” Herman said. “That’s why recruiting is so important, and your miss percentage has to be pretty low in terms of recruiting.”

Now it is up to the Texas coaching staff to develop the available players and enhance what those players do well.

“It’s on us to figure out with the personnel that we do have and where are they deficient and either improve it or eliminate that from the game plan,” Herman said.

Herman said that many of his struggling players on defense are “just trying to do too much.”

“That’s one of our biggest issues right now,” he said. “You got to say, ‘hey, just do your job, just do it the way you’re coached to do it and you got to trust that the other 10 guys that are out there are doing that as well.’”

UT’s leaders have a lot of impact on reining in the team’s anxious young players. Herman signaled out senior captains Malcolm Roach and Brandon Jones and sophomore Joseph Ossai for taking on that role.

“When families are hit with adversity, there’s only two possible outcomes: you either come together more and become stronger or you splinter and you separate and you fracture,” Herman said, “and I think that they’re doing a really good job as leaders on that side of the ball, of making sure that everybody is coming together, everybody is rowing the boat in the same direction.”
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